Don't shoot me, but I've got to say: "search" is just the end result. The essential building block is "cataloging." To this end, David Weinberger (The Cluetrain Manifesto), has published “Everything is Miscellaneous.” It is the best book I’ve read…
Belated congratulations to our friend Sebastien Provencher and his Praized Media team for getting $1 million from Garage Ventures Technology Canada. That’s $1 million Canadian ... better than greenbacks right now. Here’s all the company will say about it, publicly…
Zillow has landed $30 million in new financing, which comes on top of the $57 million already raised. The new round values the 155-employee “Zestimate” provider at $350 million, according to reporting by Rebecca Buckman at The Wall Street Journal.…
Trader Pubs, the Canadian shopper publisher of AutoTrader.ca and assorted other titles acquired by YPG last year, is seeking synergies between the companies that add usage and extend advertiser relationships in both directions, according to Geneviève LeBrun, a longtime YPG…
While I am in Reston, VA, attending Kelsey's Directory Driven Commerce conference, I thought it would be a good time to start talking about our next show, which I am co-producing: Interactive Local Media 2007. The show is being done…
Amateur sports and lifestyle services are great vertical categories that are generally worth many times more in their own wrapping than in a magazine, newspaper or Yellow Pages. Active Networks, whose leadership and original funding have some roots from IAC,…
Grayboxx Founder Bob Chandra responded, via phone, to criticisms of the site’s launch in Burlington, VT, which resulted in a lot of off-the-mark rankings. Chandra acknowledged that Burlington (population 38,000, with a metro area of about 130,000) may be “too…
Yellow Book today joined Canada’s YPG in launching AgendiZe, the service that captures Yellow Pages and classifieds info and puts it on up to 66 media platforms for recall. On deck for implementation is Belo’s Dallas Morning News. I wrote…
If we’ve learned anything in 10 years, it’s that building SME Web sites is one tough business. There’s huge churn and heavy competition. Increasingly, there is also more focus on SEO, SEM and promotions. And “easy” paths to riches via…
Grayboxx, which ranks local businesses based on the number of mentions they receive on online consumer services, has finally launched, almost a year after I first wrote about it. The service, which assumes that people generally only mention services they…
Grayboxx, which ranks local businesses based on the number of mentions they receive on online consumer services, has finally launched, almost a year after I first wrote about it. The service, which assumes that people generally only mention services they…
Using the Web to drive customers to restaurants via online ads, 2-for-1 coupons, certificates, menus and/or reservations is a big idea that hasn’t totally arrived but is getting closer. There has definitely been some progress in the space. For instance,…
Yelp has added events to its listings, maps and user reviews in 10 cities -- San Francisco, New York, Los Angeles, Boston, Seattle, San Jose, Austin, Chicago, Washington D.C., and San Diego. The feature includes a landing page for each…
The big picture we’ve all been looking at is that online ad spending for search and lead generation is beginning to plateau. ComScore pegs search's share at around 40 percent. Google certainly sees it, hence its recent effort to entrench…
Planet Discover, the pioneering local search and Internet Yellow Pages vendor, won’t sign new contracts with local media outlets that compete with Gannett newspaper and TV properties, according to sources. Gannett purchased Planet Discover in May 2006, but up to…
I am in the middle of researching an Advisory on major metro markets, why they are such a challenge for Yellow Pages publishers and what, if anything, they can do to reverse the slide. In the course of doing research…
Service referral sites like ServiceMagic and Angie’s List have gotten some traction. But by no means are they dominating the business. What will it take? Ashish Mohole, cofounder of start-up GetVendors.com, thinks the key is to guarantee that users get…
Gannett’s “Information Center” project to overhaul its newspapers with user-generated content and data-driven services is making some progress, per this month’s Wired magazine piece by Jeff Howe. Since I first reported on the initiative in November 2006, the company has…
Summary My column for Search Engine Watch this month, Pimp My Vertical Search, takes a look at some of the directions being taken in vertical search, particularly in autos. Autobytel has begun to do some interesting things with its recently…
Web exec Bill Day, who formerly led WhenU (a behavioral targeting firm), About.com and Prodigy, was announced yesterday as Marchex’s new chief media officer (an interesting title). The position is a new one for the publicly owned company, which isn’t…
