Neil Budde of DailyMe and Mike Orren of Pegasus News helped the ILM:09 audience understand what it takes to offer a truly customized news offering that is engaging and relevant. One of the key takeaways both Orren and Budde discussed…
Yelp has had lots of success with its iPhone app, which currently accounts for 5 percent of its overall traffic. This is partly because its base of urban "foodies" maps well to iPhone user bases. This was a smart platform…
Oodle CEO Craig Donato led off day three of Marketplaces 2009 describing how classified advertising has gone through an evolution over the past five years, progressing from simply importing them online, to making them searchable and finally today integrating classifieds…
Oodle has been describing itself as a “social classifieds” platform for some time, extending its reach via deals with local powerhouses such as AOL, Comcast, Cox, Media General, Freedom and Wal-Mart. Now, it is set to make the hype more…
European local business review site Qype has undergone the redesign we alluded to in the yesterday's post (note the new logo). Head of marketing Andrew Hunter told us last week in London that the new design has usability and functional…
Last week, while touring London and Paris, Charles Laughlin and I had the chance to meet with Qype, a local business review site whose popularity in Europe has matched that of Yelp in some U.S. markets. Our first order of…
Sears will try to leverage its identity with home improvement and repair with ServiceLive, a new leads provider for service pros that is being pitted against ServiceMagic, Angie’s List, DoneRight and others. The tagline for the service, which begins a…
Local.com has made its first substantive changes to the site in over a year. CEO Heath Clarke says the changes make it easier to find all the varied content on the local portal. It will also make it easier for…
TripAdvisor was one of those rare Web 2.0 breakthroughs where the power of the crowd created a viral energy all its own (and enough traffic to sell advertising). Now Stephen Kaufer, founder and CEO of TripAdvisor, along with Dan Saul,…
Zagat, which publishes consumer reviews and guides for restaurants, nightlife, hotels and attractions, has licensed out its name and reviewer system to WellPoint. The health-care insurer will publish Zagat-branded health reviews for its WellPoint and Anthem Blue Cross customers, reports…
FixR, a seven-person Boston-area site that bills itself as an “eBay for local services,” has launched. Developed with private funds, the site provides free listings for services and free bids for consumers, but expects to charge a “success” fee when…
Yelp announced today that it will launch Yelp U.K. From the release: Now people in the UK can use Yelp to read and write reviews about great businesses in their neighborhood. Locals are able to share their opinions on everything…
We’re out with our predictions for 2009. But what’s the final word for 2008? Truly, it was a very stimulating and thoughtful year for our local media and commerce industry. But speaking for myself, it’s hard to say whether it…
Spas and salon advertisers are a huge focus for local sites. They’re a Top 4 selection for Citysearch, and also rank highly on Yelp and other sites. Now they are being specifically targeted by InnerRewards, a new health and wellness vertical…
We keep going back to Clayton Christensen and his disruptive technology timeline ... and we really don’t see that anything in the local space truly qualifies as the disruptor (although Google is worth pondering). Still, they keep coming. The latest…
Today is Yelp Day in San Francisco, by order of Mayor Gavin Newsom. If memory serves me correctly, this is the second annual Yelp Day. It's a nice PR boost for Yelp. For the city, it's probably a way to…
IBegin has been trying to add its own Web 2.0 sensibility to the listings business, offering free basic directories of businesses, and customization services on an upgrade basis. It now has 150 businesses and organizations subscribing, including schools, local and…
This isn't a brand-new item but is something I just noticed: Yellowbook.com now offers the ability for users to rate businesses and read the reviews of others. The reason this is notable is that the IYP for a while was…
Citysearch has just completed a full revamp of its product and strategy that it hopes will position it in the long-term battle for local. Elements of the revamp include a more intuitive interface, an embrace of social media, a major…
In April, we covered Yelp's launch of a suite of marketing tools that let small businesses manage their listings. This is essentially a back-end tool that allows any business with a Yelp listing to claim his or her profile, add…
