This year’s National Automobile Dealers Association convention in San Francisco, Feb. 9-12, reflected the tough times that have hit the industry. Themes at the show didn’t go much beyond the convention’s official title: “Focus on Profitability.” But a sub-theme at…
I recently attended the Photo Marketers Association annual convention in Las Vegas. The PMA has been around since 1924 and has extended its reach to address an international mix of sub-verticals including photo retailers, professional photographers, mass merchandisers, professional labs,…
Comcast announced today that its advertising sales division, Comcast Spotlight, will acquire automotive site Vehix (sans "dot com"). The company had a previous relationship -- financially and strategically -- and today's deal makes the marriage official. For Vehix, this ties the…
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…
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…
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…
Following up on the previous post, Zillow also announced today that it has gotten together with Yahoo! Real Estate, Trulia and a handful of others to establish a standard format for home listings. This is hoped to lower the barrier…
Zillow made a few announcements today including the fact that it has reached the start-up rite of passage (or sometimes-PR stunt) of coming out of beta. But more important than this symbolic move are the reasons behind it. The company…
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…
In news that was supposed to be announced today but broke late last night, discount travel site Kayak has raised $196 million and acquired competitor SideStep. Techcrunch reports that deal is worth $200 million. The funding came from existing investors…
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…
Radio has virtually been a non-starter for local online sales, but a new video initiative by Clear Channel Radio, the nation’s largest chain with stations in 80 U.S. markets, might ramp things up. The video initiative, using Denver Multimedia (DMM) as…
Auto dealers and real estate brokers (and agents) are increasingly contending with mission creep for their Web needs that require them to have two or more Web sites. Part of the problem is that they must conform to standardized requirements.…
The way Yahoo! breaks up business segments is always instructive -- something we follow closely at The Kelsey Group as we do our best to sort out our Interactive Local Media, Marketplaces and Yellow Pages/Directional Advertising (“The Kelsey Report”) research…
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…
A major benefit associated with R.H. Donnelley's $345 million purchase of Business.com in July was getting Business.com founder Jake Winebaum. RHD needed an Internet change agent, and Winebaum clearly fit the bill after having played that role at Disney and…
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…
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…
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…
Zillow is set to provide its 4 million users, Zestimate capabilities, and EZ Ads platform and nascent set of national listings to 285 newspapers, including many members of Yahoo!'s newspaper consortium. It's very much a two-way street. The newspapers, for their…
