Summary As expected, Google has expanded its newspaper ad pilot program and has made it easier and more visible to AdWords advertisers. The program has shown success, as we noted back in December, and represents one of the many flanks…
Local.com will get wide distribution among small newspapers via its $2 million acquisition of PremierGuide, which provides local search services to 350 sites, including the twin powers of CNHI and Gatehouse. It also gets into The Washington Post and a…
We can argue somewhere else whether the U.S. Patent Office is helping to foster innovation in 2007 or hinder it. But the bottom line is that yet another wide-ranging, fairly obvious patent has been issued – this time to Local.com…
The Kelsey Group and AMR International joined forces to hold a summit in London on the Future of Local Search in Europe. It was an invitation-only affair, which is why you probably didn’t hear about it. Not surprisingly, most of…
The New York Times reports today on the many directions possible for Yahoo! in the wake of Terry Semel's resignation as chief executive. Among this range of options is everything from giving up on paid search (outsourcing Google to place…
Business 2.0's Erick Shoenfeld reports on a movement today to see if you can get by without the five major search engines, consisting of Google, Yahoo!, Microsoft, (including MSN and Live Search), Ask and AOL. Search Engine Land reports there…
As expected, Google today announced the acquisition of hot (no pun intended) RSS feed management company FeedBurner. See last week's post for the drivers and implications of this deal.
Summary Jingle Networks' free DA service 1-800-FREE411 has discontinued live operators in some locations. Operator expenses in these markets have significantly cut into margins as the overall cost of providing these calls isn't being offset by the advertising volumes. Free…
Summary After completing a free DA call this week using Google's newly launched 800-GOOG411, we were asked if a text message was desired in addition to the free voice and "connect me" features (the multimodal functionality that is standard in…
Here at O’Reilly’s Where 2.0 conference in San Jose, an annual event for 800+ mashup developers, there’s no perspective yet on the importance of maps to the local ecosphere. But a picture is developing of a “3D Data arms race,”…
Summary BizReport.com reports that Google will begin to axe websites from its AdSense publisher network that have an unfavorable "ad/edit" ratio (to use a magazine term). Though this seems detrimental to Google's strategy to extend its reach for brokering ads…
The Vecosys blog is reporting the rumor (take it only as that) that Google has its crosshairs set on Feedburner for its next acquisition. This would make sense for Google, given its ongoing expansion of venues in which to broker…
Summary Examining patent filings has become something of a beat, in the blogospheric reporting of online media. ZDNet's Russel Shaw takes a look at a fresh Google patent application for a new mobile local search app. The long term potential…
We’re all guilty of feature creep. A lot of the stuff isn’t especially useful. Now comes Palore. When it comes to directory listings, Palore believes hardly any of the info is useful. In fact, consumers want to know just one…
Summary An article yesterday on the SeekingAlpha blog examines a recent wave of investment consolidation in the online media space. This signals, among other things, an impending acceleration of advertising shifts from offline to off, and a revenue diversification play…
ShopLocal, the shopping service owned by Tribune, Gannett and McClatchy, often gets overlooked in the glare of Amazon, eBay and the pricing comparison engines. But the service’s three networks are now getting over 200 million page views a month, which…
A new Interactive Local Media Advisory looks at Google’s moves over the past week to continue its march toward becoming a one-stop shop advertising powerhouse across all media. They include of course the massive DoubleClick acquisition and the deal with…
This morning, I joined 500 or so members of the San Diego Venture Group to hear Vint Cerf, the tech legend who was instrumental in the Internet's creation in the 1960s. More recently, he's been working as a very high-profile…
Google and Clear Channel Communications will announce a partnership today whereby the search company will sell 5 percent of the radio group's inventory in 100 top U.S. markets. The agreement covers roughly 675 Clear Channel stations. Terms of the deal,…
Google has reached an agreement to buy DoubleClick, a display ad network, for US$3.1 billion in cash. The acquisition moves Google deeper into the critical display and rich media markets, a segment the company has vowed to become a larger…
