The Washington Post is switching its local real estate search from Classified Ventures’ HomeFinder.com to Trulia. The switch takes place in April, and is being announced just after CV's introduction of the HomeFinder brand, which replaces the HomeScape brand. The…
Multiple Listing Services are generally seen as technologically backward sites restricted to Realtors. But this may change, if a new consumer-facing model takes off. Specifically, Local Matters, the social media vendor launched by MapQuest founder Perry Evans, has teamed with…
Angie Hicks, the cofounder and namesake of Angie’s List, said she thinks of her company as a direct marketing machine. Speaking at ClickZ’s Online Marketing Summit in San Diego this morning, Hicks noted: “We’re direct marketers at heart. If it…
The old maxim says that when new cars are down, used cars are up. And when house sales are down, apartments are up. We’ve heard from some publishers that they are seeing more apartment advertising. But prices have been hurt by…
OpenTable, the online restaurant reservation service, has filed an S1 with the SEC to raise $40 million. The company, founded in 1998 by former Citysearch President Thomas Layton, was launched as Easyseats.com. It currently has contracts with 10,000 restaurants in all 50…
(The View From the 46th Floor) The bad market for real estate has put a crimp in a lot of real estate marketing (except perhaps for foreclosure sites like Zetabids). The New York Times, on Sunday, found that many real…
IAC’s ServiceMagic, a leader in delivering leads to services, has purchased Bethesda,MD- based Market Hardware, which provides websites and search engine optimization for 2,500 SMBs. Market Hardware, which has 30 people, targets “high online spend verticals” that closely mirror ServiceMagic’s…
The iPhone app store now has 15,000 apps available. So what’s No. 8 (among the free utilities)? RepairPal, an auto site that uses the GPS capabilities of the iPhone to deliver repair auto estimates, a comprehensive repair shop directory and…
Our Marketplaces 2009 conference in L.A. is just around the corner (March 16-18). Some great additions have just been announced: Active Network CEO Dave Alberga (our fourth keynote); Yahoo Local leader Atif Rafiq; and all the ins and outs of…
AOL continues its evolution into a multi-pronged media company with the launch of MediaGlow, a new vertical division made up of 70 branded and non-branded niche sites, such as When.com, AOL Autos and TMZ.com. The company expects to have more than…
We’ve just announced the lineup for our Marketplaces 2009 conference, which is March 16-18 at the historic (and excellent) Century Plaza in L.A. We hope you find it as compelling as we do. It is probably a “must attend” event by any…
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…
The U.K. online Yellow Pages directory Yell.com has announced a partnership with IdealHomeShow.co.uk, giving the home improvement and garden trade show Web site access to Yell.com’s local business listings in related headings. This agreement is a first for Yell.com, according…
Increasingly, we’re seeing pressure on newspaper publishers to forgo seven-day delivery. The idea is they’d refocus on the development of profitable niche sites and the Thursday, Friday and Sunday editions packed with retail advertising. Under this concept, the other days…
Realtors are a vocal bunch, especially on the blogs. When something isn’t right, you really hear about it. Today, there was a bubbly post on Active Rain, an excellent real estate community site, by Missy Caulk, an Ann Arbor Realtor.…
The Wall Street Journal has been making some bold statements in its recent coverage. A couple of weeks ago, The WSJ’s Emily Steel pronounced Yellow Pages “extinct.” This week, a new article by Steel noted the “tapering off” of ad…
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…
The embrace of social media by the real estate and apartment communities has been strong, with many sites displaying videos of units and the community (or linking to YouTube), writing blogs, and participating on social sites such as Facebook and MySpace.…
Our friend Chip Perry, CEO of AutoTrader.com, was on Fox News yesterday, making a case for an auto industry (conditional) bailout to Neil Cavuto. The argument is that a strategic taxpayer investment that comes with performance-based conditions could force the…
Two real success stories in the home services category shared the stage this afternoon on the "Home Services Visionaries" panel, offering two different perspectives on how to make money from creating a local home services marketplace, built on a foundation…
