The New York Times is reporting that Ask Jeeves is to be acquired by IAC for the equivalent of US$1.9 billion in stock. The deal, if completed, makes a certain amount of sense for both companies. Ask Jeeves has good…
Just got in to Newspapers'05 in Dallas, the newspaper industry's mega-show put on by the Newspaper Association of America (NAA). This show covers absolutely everything having to do with the industry -- except it appears blogs, social networking and RSS.…
Yesterday, after apparent leaks to the press, Yahoo! decided to announce its rumored blogging/social networking service (to launch at the end of the month) -- Yahoo! 360. According to AP reports, the service will offer multiple features and allow people…
Borrell Associates released a report last week that projected local online ad spending would increase by 46% and hit US$3.9 billion in 2005. The Kelsey Group€™s forthcoming forecast is somewhat more conservative (except in the paid search category). However, it…
Thanks to Justin Sanger of LocalLaunch for pointing out Marty Himmelstein's excellent article on Local Search/IYP. Himmelstein was something of a pioneer in Local Search and worked for Internet start-up Vicinity Corp. Before being acquired by Microsoft, Vicinity was a…
A9, which recently launched Yellow Pages, has now created a very interesting RSS-based "open search" platform that allows users (once they're signed in) to customize and add "columns" to their A9 interface. A9 and MyYahoo, as well as some of…
This morning, following in Yahoo!'s footsteps (Local Listings) to a degree, Google announced the "Google Local Business Center." It's a free tool for businesses to add or update their business listings that appear in Google Local. Though the new site,…
The California-based Kaiser Family Foundation last week released research on American youth and media use: "Generation M: Media in the Lives of 8-18 Year-Olds." The study consisted of a nationally representative sample of 2,032 kids (3rd through 12th grade). The…
The Pew Internet & American Life Project, as part of its ongoing telephone survey, polled roughly 2,200 U.S. residents on their sources of political information and news during the past election cycle. The results are a window into the larger…
A story this week on Adweek.com talks about a new ad campaign from SBC that tries to restore the mystique of printed Yellow Pages while setting SBC Yellow Pages apart from competitors €" referred to only as the €œDifferent Book€…
One of the interesting discussions that I find myself having quite a bit lately is the quality vs. quantity of leads discussion. It's a pretty well-known fact that IYP leads are much more qualified than general Web search clicks. There…
In Jerry Yang's relatively brief on-stage interview with SES host Danny Sullivan this a.m., Yang gave a high-level overview of where Yahoo is going with search and other features of the portal. He spoke about more tightly integrating services across…
So it's about 3:15 a.m. here in NY, as I eagerly await the start of SES (more like the coffee I'm going to need tomorrow morning). But I just wanted to get another blog out before I attempt to sleep.…
Google has launched a personalization capability for Google News, allowing manipulation of the existing news categories and the creation of specialized categories (e.g., "Local Search"). Search Engine Watch has the full rundown. The new functionality is very useful and it…
Greetings from the Mirage Hotel. I am sitting here staring at Steve Wynn€™s enormous signature on his new Vegas strip hotel, poring over my notes from the first general sessions at the Yellow Pages Association annual convention, halfway into its…
Newspapers have long thrown up registration pages in front of users coming from newsletters or news aggregation sites in order to capture demographic and personal information for later marketing purposes. The point is to make newspaper sites more valuable to…
DMNews reports on infoUSA data showing the number of small businesses in the U.S. declined by about 300,000 from 11.6 million at the end of 2003 to 11.3 million at the end of last year. This prompts me to think…
According to a news release, Interchange, which recently acquired Swedish Local Search technology platform Inspire AB, announced that it had secured the domain "Local.com" for US$700,000. It will use the Inspire technology, as well as its own, to support the…
DexOnline.com was the No. 1 IYP site within its region in 2004, according to consumer research firm comScore. They are not close to No. 1 outside of their region. We do not have information on how other publishers have done…
Here's a USAToday piece that shows the potential direct line from consumer usage/behavior to advertising spend allocation. The article's about SMEs and search-engine marketing (anecdotal but instructive). Where the consumers are found the advertisers will follow--eventually. This is why IYP…
