Video has taken center stage at Drilling Down on Local '07. Actual local video ads are getting a lot of play on the jumbo-tron screens that flank the stage both between sessions and during some presentations. This has been…
Greg Sterling wrote an interesting column in the YPA's Local Search Guide, and on his own blog, about the growing importance of video in local search. He gives lots of good examples of local video ad programs either launched or…
The Wall Street Journal ran a piece today (sub req.) on a few video ad technologies that are being developed. These are mostly geared toward national advertisers and branding, but there are important implications here for local. In the ongoing…
It's really the year of video on the Net, and local video plays a big role in that (and we're talking about more than the big rats that were filmed running amok at the TacoBell/KFC in Greenwich Village). At our…
Bambi Francisco wrote a column today weighing in on the notion of online video ads for local merchants. She recalls the launch, seven years ago, of VYP.com, a site devoted to video ads for plumbers, carpet cleaners and the like.…
With growing interest in online video and the lack of available inventory, advertisers are scrambling to find new outlets for their online advertising dollars. According to a recent Advertising Age article: "It's certainly not lack of interest from advertisers, who…
Canpages, the energized Hicks Muse-owned rival to YPG, has rolled out revised versions of its print Yellow Pages along with a unified brand and a dramatic new Web site, which officially launches at the end of next week. The new…
The online video space continues to see a lot of action. This is not to be confused with the IPTV space, talked about in the previous post, which involves telco-delivered video service packages (akin to cable). Online video is rather…
GigaOm reports on a new local city guide-like product being tested by Yahoo!. It's called Our City (sounds an awful lot like Ask's new local search product, AskCity) and is being tested in Bangalore and New Delhi. From the looks…
There have been lots of newspaper news and announcements in and around the NAA show so far, and I imagine much more to come. Here is a sampling: LostRemote reports that The San Francisco Chronicle is experimenting with podcasts…
Gary Arlen, the longtime media pundit (and my former business partner), says in a new article for TV Technology that he is expecting newspapers to use the Web to shove their way into the television industry and "become significant online…
Recently I had the chance to catch up with Mark Sigal, CEO of online video distribution platform provider vSocial. The company provides a platform for advertisers and video publishers to publish and brand videos on existing Web sites, social networks…
I missed this late last week because I was out, but AT&T has fired the latest shot in the bundled services (or "quad play") battle by offering free wireless calling to landline phones. In other words, it's free when Cingular…
There are a lot of reasons why Yellow Pages will continue to be the dominant local advertising vehicle. Certainly a major benefit Yellow Pages publishers have is that advertisers and people looking to buy products and services both know a…
ShopLocal, the sales aggregator from Tribune, Gannett and McClatchy, is normally aimed at middle-aged women coupon-cutters. But in a bid to extend its audience, and get a little buzz, a couple of young Turks at the company have created a…
I'm a bit late on this news, but Digg.com started off the week with a new interface that users so far (going by anecdotal evidence) seem to really like. Part of the redesign involves the integration of videos and podcasts.…
