Google is pushing hard to jumpstart its radio ad business, leveraging its $1.245 billion acquisition of the DMarc rep business in 2005. The search leader says it is working with 900 stations in 200 markets. But so far, according to…
Classified aggregator Oodle has offered to integrate its listings into community site iPoste. The press release doesn't mention if listings will flow in the other direction, but they should based on Oodle's aggregation model. Classified aggregation is all about in/out…
EStara announced this week that it will power the new click-to-call functionality of Yellow Pages Singapore's online directory, Yellowpages.com.sg. YPS is the largest directory publisher in Singapore and its online directory is the most trafficked online business directory there, according…
Map-centric directories from the likes of Google and Microsoft, enhanced with satellite and 3D imagery, are absolutely fascinating. They're also increasingly functional, with all kinds of searchable links. But is it really clear that they are the future of directories?…
One of the foreseen deficiencies that could hold cable companies back in the battle for bundled services is the lack of wireless service assets. Though they possess short-run advantages in the relative ease in building a voice business (compared with…
The path to self-sustaining revenues for free directory assistance isn't clear yet. But if there is any real money to be made, it is going to come from category search. Unlike name search, users don't have a clear idea who…
Yahoo! this week launched a new version of its free Web site development and hosting product, through Yahoo! Small Business. Although it previously had a free tool for small businesses to establish a Web presence, this is an improvement because…
It appears Yell Group may be the target of an unnamed private equity group hoping to pursue an LBO of Yell, which is the leading YP publisher in the U.K. and Spain and the largest U.S. independent publisher through its…
The latest news on the sale of Yellow Pages Group (New Zealand) is that a partnership of the private equity KKR and Australia's Seven Network has made a final offer of about NZ$2.2 billion, which is about 9 times the…
Yellowpages.com unveiled the first screen shots of its IPTV Internet Yellow Pages channel at Local '07 yesterday. The shots show a colorful video service that enables users to select and browse by popular categories, with details of nearby businesses also…
Just got a press release in my inbox from Yellow Book announcing that it would begin publicly disclosing audited circulation figures for all its directories with distribution greater than 100,000. In the release, Yellow Book makes the claim that it…
Earlier this week I was rereading the transcript of the Nordic directory publisher Eniro's Q4 2006 earnings call, and I paid a bit more attention to an item I had glossed over the first time through, when I was more…
Nick Veronis, managing director of Veronis Suhler Stevenson, says he doesn't see a "dollar for dollar" transfer between incumbent media in the local arena and their Internet offspring, but publishers are in a position to make money online. "The big…
Video has taken center stage at Drilling Down on Local '07. Actual local video ads are getting a lot of play on the jumbo-tron screens that flank the stage both between sessions and during some presentations. This has been…
Yahoo! EVP Hilary Schneider, during her opening keynote to Kelsey Local '07, emphasized that the company is really zeroing in on local to play a major role in Yahoo!'s growth plans. Local search's share of overall search within Yahoo! went…
The "little guys" at the local level are generally obscured in both the "organic search" and "paid" rankings of the search engines. A search for "home improvement" in "San Diego," for instance, yields just two local contractors in 10 slots.…
The America East show the largest regional event in the U.S. newspaper industry took place last week in Hershey, Pennsylvania, with 1,200-plus attendees. I'd sum it up by saying that the attendees' mostly small and medium-sized markets remain…
Microsoft announced today that it has agreed to acquire Tellme, a Mountain View, California-based voice search provider. Yesterday, Microsoft and Tellme briefed The Kelsey Group about the pending acquisition. Neither side would disclose the size of the deal, but we…
Pegasus News, the social network site based in Dallas, made a deal with Fox4 TV for a mutual content swap that would fill Pegasus' news hole, leverage its features (weather, etc.) and increase awareness about it in the community. At…
Rumors are swirling about a potential Microsoft acquisition of Tellme Networks. The latest is a Wall Street Journal article (sub. req'd) that reports a possible sale price of US$800 million (here is coverage from TechCrunch if you don't have a…
