Classifieds can now be sent in via text messaging thanks to SMS Pal, a text message classified ad company. The service costs 99 cents for every listing and is charged back as a premium SMS message to the user’s carrier.…
The Los Angeles Times and the rest of the Tribune Co. have been going through a very public belt tightening. The most recent round of cutbacks apparently played a role in the departure of Editor James O’Shea. But when it…
OK, so I’m on a Web 2.0 kick. I guess I’ve made it my New Year’s resolution to get more publishers and local search companies thinking about the broader meaning and business opportunities Web 2.0 presents beyond consumer reviews and…
Local search and automated rating site Grayboxx announced a series of upgrades today, meant to enhance and expand the site as well as infuse some personal flavor (read: trust) to its core rating features. As we've written the company's "implicit…
Linkedin has become a valuable resource for connecting business professionals. Recently Linkedin has added a professional services feature that allows members to share their business contacts in specific service categories. The new “Services” tab allows users to find people via…
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…
BooRah, the Bay Area restaurant review site, has raised some seed funding from Storm Ventures and other investors (amount undisclosed) and plans to use the money to grow beyond its roots as a tech vendor for alternative newsweeklies. The…
Yellowpages.com President Charles Stubbs stressed the IYP opportunity with online video, call tracking, social media and IPTV during an SES Chicago appearance this week. Yellowpages.com is within striking distance to each of these, given the assets and initiatives of parent…
Idearc has announced another distribution deal aimed at satisfying SMB demand for performance-based advertising on Superpages.com. The latest deal involved Findology, a California-based company that operates the Zipcodez.com local search engine. Idearc will now place its PFP advertisers on the Zipcodez.com…
It is hard for me to comprehend, but we are finally finished with ILM:07. We were grateful to have had 650 interesting and enthusiastic attendees from all over the world, 72 stimulating speakers, a full load of sponsors and an…
At the ILM:07 conference last week in L.A., we saw lots of great mapping demos from Google, mobilePeople, et al. But it was hard to nail down how maps and their related services (ZIP codes, neighborhood mapping and other spatial…
Two pioneers in the local social space discussed their leading-edge approaches in a panel at ILM:07 today. First up was Mike Orren, president of Pegasus News. Like so many companies in the local online space, Pegasus has not followed a…
Executive Interview: The Leading Edge: Auto Advertising in Transition had very much the same ring to it as yesterday's session on real estate in transition. At The Kelsey Group's ILM:07 event, the final panel each day was on two of…
ILM:07 was fortunate to have Jason Calacanis, CEO of Mahalo, as a speaker. Always a straight shooter and a prolific blogger, Calacanis is very outspoken about his feelings about search, social media, SEO and local search. When asked about the…
Having worked in the Yellow Pages industry over the past eight years, both for a major publisher and here at The Kelsey Group, I am constantly being asked what the industry could do to make itself more relevant and stem the…
Video production and uploads have become standard upsells for Internet Yellow Pages, local portals and sales organizations in the age of YouTube. But once a business has a video, what does it really do with it? How does it drive…
Angus Frame, editor of Globeandmail.com, presented an interesting CaseCamp study this evening in Toronto. He showed how the many twists and turns it took to implement one simple social media aspect to the site have paid off. Globeandmail.com launched its…
Interactive Local Media: 07 is ready to roll Nov. 28-30 in L.A. That’s next Wednesday through Friday! The show, which is being produced in partnership with SES Local, has attendees from all over the world. One exec told me he…
I attended Warrillow & Co.'s Canadian conference in Toronto this morning where more than a hundred eager marketing managers gathered to hear about the latest trends in reaching the 2.3 million small businesses in Canada. John Warrillow’s opening presentation referenced…
