There is a sudden glut of sites that allow people to register their cars and get specific service information and recommendations about them. First, there was Autobytel’s MyRide. RepairPal launched last week. This week, it is DriverSide, which is being…
TKG has learned that local online industry veteran Mark Canon has accepted the position of president-new media at Yell, the U.K.'s leading directory publisher. He will start in July and take over for the retiring Eddie Cheng. Canon brings a…
To all the skeptics who thought that Zillow’s deal with newspapers would never roll out ... next week, The Philadelphia Inquirer, San Francisco Chronicle, San Jose Mercury News and Richmond Times-Dispatch are selling featured listings for Zillow at the same…
New auto repair information resource RepairPal went live today. The site steps into an undeserved market segment by providing information about the user's specific car and its maintenance needs. One central use case, for example, is to check what a…
Rich Barton -- Mr. Vertical -- has added a new recruitment-oriented vertical to a lineup that now includes Expedia (sold), Zillow and Avvo. The new effort is Glassdoor.com, which provides recruitment-related information. It solicits and publishes detailed salary and bonus…
Local search platform provider Local Matters has just acquired a Facebook application-in-progress from online real estate player Point2. The app will be called Neighborhoods for Facebook and will allow Facebook users to network with others in their area and find…
Several years ago, it looked like real estate brokerages might be marginalized by “Virtual Office Websites” (VOWs) that grabbed multiple listings service listings from the Web, using a licensed agent. They then acted as cut-rate sales agents to home buyers.…
Yellow Pages Group in New Zealand announced two online partnerships geared toward extending visibility for its advertisers. The first partnership is with realestate.co.nz, New Zealand’s largest online listing site, and the second is with shopnewwzealand.co.nz, the leading online store featuring…
In its bid to establish itself as a meaningful online company, CBS Interactive has downplayed its traditional strength in local vis-a-vis TV stations, radio stations and outdoor. The company’s just announced acquisition of CNET for $1.8 billion doesn’t necessarily change…
These are tough, fast-changing times for newspapers, and many of them are taking severe measures to get back on track. Sometimes, it means putting the innovative online guy in charge of print too, as Bay Area News Group has done…
Ad network AdBrite has announced it will power a new ad management dashboard for concert promoter Live Nation. The eFan Finder application is an extension of the existing relationship between the companies that placed geotargeted event ads throughout AdBrite's network…
Despite some traction by sites like Yelp -- OK, specifically Yelp -- the hybrid IYP/rating-and-review segment remains something of a question mark in the industry. It remains to be seen whether such sites can attract a large number of frequent…
Perry Evans has a great post today on the opportunity and threat Yellow Pages publishers face from the verticalization of local search. We thank him for acknowledging TKG's role in highlighting the emergence of vertical search at our Drilling Down on…
The final day of The Kelsey Group's Drilling Down on Local conference featured a keynote by Merrill Brown of MMB Media. Brown is an industry guru with a history of developing groundbreaking media strategies and operations. Among other things, he…
AOL may have trouble on several fronts, but it still gets millions of users and it intends to fully leverage them at the local level, per Chris Spanos, Director of Search Verticals, who was speaking at Kelsey Seattle. “Given its…
Google is a collaborative partner with all verticals, and generally speaking, has no interest in competing with them, per Adrian Madland, Google’s head of automotive strategic partnerships, who was speaking at Drilling Down on Local '08 (a session also covered…
Admission Corp. has sold its Spotlight Ads division to Cobalt Group, which provides services to over 40 percent of U.S. auto dealers. The company retains control over its intellectual property and Marketplaces businesses, which account for a small piece of…
If you believe at all in the “marketplace” vision of next generation commerce, it is hard to dispute that Yahoo! remains front –and- center as a verticals factory. This core strength of Yahoo!’s is especially important to note in the…
The first day of the Kelsey Drilling Down on Local conference included a somewhat unusual panel with four entrepreneurs in verticals. They talked about the nuts and bolts of building truly local verticals. These vertical pioneers shared their war stories…
During yesterday’s afternoon session focused on Auto at Drilling Down on Local ’08, the panelists nearly universally said U.S. automaker giant General Motors was the furthest along in figuring out how to leverage the Web. Mitch Golub, president of Cars.com,…
