The New York Times has largely steered clear of local business advertising since its unsuccessful foray into local sales in the late 1990s, when it was working with Zip2. But now it is clearly reviving its local advertiser push. Last…
Much of the mobile local search opportunity discussed in our recent forecast is tied to the growth of the mobile Web. Currently about 20 percent of mobile subscribers in the U.S. use the mobile Web, and it's trending upward with…
Simmons Market Research Bureau called me at home on Saturday morning as part of a broad canvassing of Yellow Pages consumers in San Diego County. After some preliminary questions, the surveyor asked me to walk over to where I keep…
Here is a recap of posts from last week, in case you missed any. Click below to read each post in full. Behind the Forecast Numbers Earlier this week I went to hear an economist offer his take on the current…
Earlier this week I went to hear an economist offer his take on the current economy and how soon it would recover. Long story short, I believe the speaker, who had outstanding credentials, was overly optimistic. (I really believe he may…
My colleague Neal Polachek and I just got off the phone with the leadership team at the Australian publisher Sensis, who walked us through its half-year results ended Dec. 31. We continue to marvel at how successful Sensis has been at…
Cablevision bet big on synergy (and ignored the CW about the newspaper industry) when it bought Newsday from Tribune Co. last summer for $650 million. Today, less than eight months later, it concedes that it has written off $402 million…
Last fall, a report from Sequoia Capital was widely circulated, strongly suggesting that companies sit on their capital and wait out what was sure to be a very slow and painful period. Now it’s gotten worse. For the past several…
European local business review site Qype has undergone the redesign we alluded to in the yesterday's post (note the new logo). Head of marketing Andrew Hunter told us last week in London that the new design has usability and functional…
Last week, while touring London and Paris, Charles Laughlin and I had the chance to meet with Qype, a local business review site whose popularity in Europe has matched that of Yelp in some U.S. markets. Our first order of…
R.H. Donnelley has flipped the on switch on the new DexKnows.com Internet Yellow Pages platform. We wrote extensively about this new platform while it was in beta, in a blog post as well as an Advisory from The Kelsey Report.…
Sears will try to leverage its identity with home improvement and repair with ServiceLive, a new leads provider for service pros that is being pitted against ServiceMagic, Angie’s List, DoneRight and others. The tagline for the service, which begins a…
Cazoodle, a new listings-based service, has launched from the incubator at The University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana (yes, Marc Andreeson’s former territory). The site currently crawls for apartment listings and shopping. Additional vertical categories such as events are anticipated, notes…
Today we're launching a new formal practice area that will focus on the rapidly evolving mobile media space. As is core to The Kelsey Group's DNA, the main angle here will be local: how the growth of the mobile Web…
MapQuest today announced a new feature for its MapQuest 4 Mobile application, which will let users save and share personalized maps and routes. Known as MyPlaces, the feature will be part of the free MapQuest 4 mobile download on select BlackBerry…
AOL Local has teamed with Oodle to launch AOL Classifieds in the U.S. and Canada. In addition, AOL is launching a U.K. classified site at the end of the week. Oodle aggregates listings from more than 250 partner sites (including…
ESPN, which is 80 percent owned by Disney and 20 percent owned by Hearst, has been a leader in verticalizing its brand and content, with dozens of properties covering everything from the core network to ESPN Desportes to the retail stores.…
Here is a recap of posts from last week, in case you missed any. Click below to read each post in full. Local.com Revamps Site; Profitability Expected by Year-End Local.com has made its first substantive changes to the site in over…
Local.com has made its first substantive changes to the site in over a year. CEO Heath Clarke says the changes make it easier to find all the varied content on the local portal. It will also make it easier for…
The Los Angeles Times today debuted “Mapping L.A.,” an online effort to map 87 distinctive neighborhoods in the sprawling Southland. For the paper, the designation of neighborhoods goes beyond civic duties. Not only does it intend to base news stories…
