The market to produce, distribute and/or enhance small-business videos has intensified in recent months, as TurnHere, Denver MultiMedia, DMC, Spot Runner, Mixpo, BuzzSpot, EZ Show, Spotzer and others have competed (often via third-party Yellow Pages and city guides) to land…
The rise of Web-oriented behavioral targeting and the tough economics and unwieldiness of user diaries and phone calls have pushed radio rating giant Arbitron to focus less on radio station ranking and more on providing qualitative data about specific local…
Do you really need to have raised millions of dollars to succeed in selling search solutions to small businesses? It is a question that I often ask myself. Dan Hobin’s G5 Search Marketing in Bend, Ore., is profitable without having…
The small-business advertising arms race has gotten hotter in recent weeks, as companies eye a chance to add Google and Yahoo! search solutions, and other services to small-business marketing budgets once totally contained by Yellow Pages. First we had ReachLocal’s…
S&MM online columnist Robert Grede shared some interesting insights in a recent article on how local advertisers can survive in a down economy and what local media sales reps should be communicating to their advertisers and prospects. While many of…
It was interesting to see the Yellow Pages Association release its usage data showing print usage was stable at 13.4 billion and IYP usage had increased to 3.8 billion in 2007. While the overall usage figure is a 3 percent…
Last week, we wrote about The Seattle Times Co. and its new “Network search,” which is powered with FAST. This week, we are covering The Boston Globe’s Boston.com and its new “Federated” search solution, powered by Google. Federated and Network…
One big takeaway from the NAA Marketing show last week in Orlando was that newspapers are ready to build up a zillion niche products that allow them to leverage their editorial talents. But not much progress, or even attention, is…
Spot Runner has gone into the local reseller channel in a major way by acquiring Weblistic, a company headed by Ketan Shah (and whose president is Yellow Pages Commando Dick Larkin). The company has 50 employees and is headquartered in…
I liked the 2003-2007 concept of a “local info hub.” The idea was to think beyond the original business boundaries of newspapers (and Yellow Pages). Now that concept has been fancifully enlarged to a “local info and connection utility." The…
Website Pros is taking the name of Web.com, a company it merged with in late September 2007. Company officials say the name change will occur by mid-2008. They note that it reflects the company’s increasingly broad mission, and is easy…
The New York Times' David Pogue writes this morning about some of the outcroppings of new innovation at Microsoft, apparent through the newest version of Office Live for Small Business. The product takes the "Webification" issue to heart by allowing…
As a leading player in home verticals, IAC’s ServiceMagic is a company we watch with interest -- especially as IAC intends to split into five pieces. Arguably, it is the one company at IAC that really does straddle its home mortgage…
Merchant Circle has been sending out a survey on online marketing to its list of 350,000 registrants (what else could we call them? "Members"?). The six-question survey has some good Qs, and I'll look forward to the results to four…
GetVendors.com, a California-oriented start-up profiled here last August, has been acquired by Matchpoint, a 30-person service, backed by Oak Investments and IdeaLab and incubated by a team of largely LookSmart veterans. Matchpoint got started a year ago and launched in…
According to a recent Direct Marketing Association survey, “The absence of a brick-and-mortar store is becoming prevalent among retailers, since 41 percent of survey respondents don't have a physical store.” This is quite a surprising finding and certainly has significant ramifications…
When it comes to small businesses on the Web, is it really only about video? AdReady, a new Seattle-based company started by Classmates.com alum and backed by Madrona and Bain Capital, thinks banners are really where the impact is. Local…
Small-town newspapers and radio stations sometimes get into businesses that media companies in larger markets rarely do. They publish directories, develop Web sites, provide Internet access -- you name it. Thousands of newspapers are still family-owned. Increasingly, though, more are controlled…
MySpace is moving beyond personal and band profiles, and in fact, already has 3 million businesses, according to coverage by PaidContent of comments by Fox President and COO Peter Chernin at a CitiGroup conference in Phoenix. Chernin said the business…
Kudzu, the service-oriented rating and review directory from Cox Search, has been under the radar for a while, while similar services (i.e., Judy’s Book, Insider Pages and Backfence) have run into some turbulence. But a recent visit with GM Tom…
