Greg Sterling points out an interesting company called SpotScout (having "spot" in a company name is becoming something of a trademark for companies with interesting models, i.e., Spot Runner ). The start-up is taking local search to a brand-new area:…
Newspapers can't expect to beat Yellow Pages or Google in broad local advertiser categories, but they can focus on niche areas and invest in human editors and SEO to bring out their real strengths in the local marketplace, according to…
Newspaper sites have done a lot of window dressing with "hyper-local" by adding neighborhood blogs and whatnot. But now some papers are challenging themselves to embrace hyper-local in all things, as they seek to tame Google and Yahoo! in search,…
I'm at the Newspaper Association of America's annual Marketing Conference in Las Vegas this week, where there have been lots of interesting sessions that I'll break down in individual blog posts later. Most of the sessions were breakouts involving five…
The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday (sub required) about a dilemma that is starting to face many newspapers amidst falling revenues and readership; the need to divert finite editorial resources on local rather than global coverage. The article examines The…
One big trend we've noticed for both Yellow Pages and newspapers is a renewed emphasis on the dynamics of cities served. We used to worry all the time about local dynamics as city guides and others tried to figure out…
As Peter Krasilovsky reported last week, Citysearch will establish new Atlanta-based sales digs. Kevin Newcomb over at Search Engine Watch points to a ClickZ article today about the expansion. The company hopes to have 180 sales (inside, outside and national)…
The Observer has an interesting story about Hyper-Localism. This idea has several manifestations. In one version a newspaper creates Web content around niche groups like high school football teams or cats in trees and the brave city workers who save…
There has been a lot of talk in the past week over some of the apparent challenges facing local destination sites. Last week, BackFence endured a major downsizing, including the resignation of cofounder Susan DeFife (past writing on BackFence and…
Microsoft announced today that it is partnering with aerial and satellite image provider GlobeXplorer to enhance Virtual Earth with 400,000 square miles of U.S. high-resolution aerial imagery coverage. Virtual Earth is built on Microsoft's MapPoint Web service and is the…
The departure of BackFence CEO Susan DeFife amid the layoff of 12 of 18 staff members brought in a flood of comments to my personal site. Here's a selective summary. Dick Larkin, the Small Business Commando, kicked off the comments,…
Last week we had the chance to speak with MapQuest about a series of upcoming announcements (then under embargo). The first of those happened late last week with the company's mobile search platform enhancements. Today MapQuest announced the release of…
The annual Consumer Electronics Show kicks off this week and there will no doubt be a flood of product announcements, many of which will be relevant to the local and online media space. Last year, CES saw the launch of…
BackFence CEO and cofounder Susan DeFife has resigned from the company, amid a major downsizing. Co-founder Mark Potts will serve as the company's interim leader as the company looks to solve what he calls "BackFence 2.0." Potts initially said that…
Following up on last week's post, here is an in-depth Search Engine Watch article that echoes some of the benefits of vertical search. Search Engine Land meanwhile profiles online travel site SideStep, which puts some of these benefits into action.…
MapQuest announced today that it will enhance its MapQuest Mobile product and make MapQuest Navigator available on BlackBerries from Sprint and Nextel. MapQuest Mobile is a mobile local search platform available on any cellphone, which requires only a free download.…
I'm a bit late on this but LostRemote and Search Engine Watch report on the launch of blog directory Placeblogger. The site is backed by the Center for Citizen Media, whose executive director is prolific blogger and Drilling Down on…
Just in time for the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas next week, Dash Navigation said it will integrate Yahoo! Local features into its dedicated in-car GPS system. The announcement basically recycles statements made by Dash execs at DEMOfall in…
