AT&T Interactive is launching a contest today to encourage online and mobile application developers to use its APIs to build new uses for local business data. ATTi is trying to tap into the collective creativity and brainpower of the developer community to extent the reach of its online and mobile advertisers.

ATTI’s main products are its YP.com online directory and YP Mobile app, as well as its local ad network, which currently features about 300 partners. ATTi is offering developers access to 17 million local business listings across 4,600 categories.

While ATTi’s products have extensive reach, Joanna McFarland, ATTI’s VP, Publisher Network, acknowledges, “There are still a lot of consumers we are not reaching.”

In addition to extending reach, ATTi wants to promote innovation in local. “We are interested in seeing what new use cases emerge for local business data.”

Those who participate in the YP Developer Challenge will compete for the chance to win $5,000 plus a sponsored trip to the SXSW Trade Show, March 12-15, in Austin. McFarlane says the winner will share a booth at the show with ATTi. ATTi has also launched a YP Developer Center portal.

In Canada, Yellow Pages Group did something similar with its developer program, which encouraged developers to build new local applications with Yellow Media’s data. See this video for more on how Yellow Media works with developers.

McFarlane acknowledged the similarity to Yellow Media’s efforts. She noted that ATTi is minimizing the requirements around using its data to eliminate barriers to participation. While ATTi will require attribution of the data, it will not require link backs or other common restrictions.

When asked about monetization, McFarlane said only that ATTi’s has some ideas it wants to try out with developers later this year, but for now its focus is on unleashing the developer community’s creativity and assessing the results.

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ReachLocal has continued its efforts to add sticky usage for small businesses and diversify beyond reselling Google with the launch of “Bizzy” in New York, San Francisco and Dallas. Bizzy itself, which has a 21-person team, was launched by ReachLocal in early 2009 and is headquartered in Mountain View, California. It is being held separately from SMBLive/CLoud Profile, an SMB company acquired by ReachLocal in February.

In addition to offering a Bizzy city directory, the site offers SMBs a variety of marketing tools, as well as several ways to communicate with customers’ “commercial graphs.” The site, which is the latest of several social directory-type sites (i.e., AT&T’s Buzz.com, etc.), has no overt association with ReachLocal.

Consumers can use Bizzy to save offers and make lists of businesses that can send them updates, tips, offers and special invitations through a Bizzy Feed. Information can be shared with friends via e-mail, Twitter or Facebook — or consumers can interact with consumers who have similar tastes. Consumers can also use Bizzy to engage with business owners on a public wall or privately.

“Personal relationships and great customer care are the main reasons customers love the businesses they do, and local businesses are all about that,” said Bizzy GM and President Gadi Shamia. “Owners know that the success of their business revolves around keeping their customers happy, but they have no effective tools to accomplish this when the customer leaves the store.”

The post ReachLocal’s ‘Bizzy’ Launches in 3 Markets appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.

ReachLocal has continued its efforts to add sticky usage for small businesses and diversify beyond reselling Google with the launch of “Bizzy” in New York, San Francisco and Dallas. Bizzy itself, which has a 21-person team, was launched by ReachLocal in early 2009 and is headquartered in Mountain View, California. It is being held separately from SMBLive/CLoud Profile, an SMB company acquired by ReachLocal in February.

In addition to offering a Bizzy city directory, the site offers SMBs a variety of marketing tools, as well as several ways to communicate with customers’ “commercial graphs.” The site, which is the latest of several social directory-type sites (i.e., AT&T’s Buzz.com, etc.), has no overt association with ReachLocal.

Consumers can use Bizzy to save offers and make lists of businesses that can send them updates, tips, offers and special invitations through a Bizzy Feed. Information can be shared with friends via e-mail, Twitter or Facebook — or consumers can interact with consumers who have similar tastes. Consumers can also use Bizzy to engage with business owners on a public wall or privately.

“Personal relationships and great customer care are the main reasons customers love the businesses they do, and local businesses are all about that,” said Bizzy GM and President Gadi Shamia. “Owners know that the success of their business revolves around keeping their customers happy, but they have no effective tools to accomplish this when the customer leaves the store.”

The post ReachLocal’s 'Bizzy' Launches in 3 Markets appeared first on BIA/Kelsey - Local Media Watch.

AT&T has unveiled a new version of its Yellowpages.com online directory, complete with a new name (YP.com); a new algorithmic approach to search; updated maps; and a set of vertical integrations with leading partners in cars, hotels, events and movies.

AT&T Interactive GM Greg Isaacs told us in a briefing today that the site was redone to focus on “what really makes consumers tick at a local level.” The four verticals featured on the site today are just a beginning, Isaacs said. More vertical experiences will be added in the coming months.

Aside from the obvious improvements in the site’s content and performance, there is a significant branding story here. AT&T’s predecessor companies (SBC and BellSouth) spent a pretty penny (about US$100 million) to acquire the Yellowpages.com URL back in 2004.

Today, AT&T made it clear that the term “Yellow Pages” doesn’t really fit with what the company wants to be now and in the future, particularly with its online and mobile portfolio.

This decision is consistent with the broader industry trend away from explicit references to Yellow Pages in favor of brands that can absorb other meanings. Think Dex One, Sensis, Truvo, ZipLocal, Eniro and so on. Not much “Yellow” or “Pages” in any of these brands. Granted, some of these are corporate rather than consumer facing brands, but all were unveiled at least in part to distance their owners from the Yellow Pages heritage.

Isaacs said AT&T research showed that YP.com evokes the Yellow Pages heritage without weighing the brand down with the limitations the term conveys — namely, that it’s a traditional print medium that is used more for getting your carpets cleaned than planning a romantic getaway.

We asked Isaacs if AT&T was prepared to invest sufficiently to build the YP.com brand and differentiate it from other local search and Yellow Pages sites. He told us a comprehensive marketing plan was in the works but said he couldn’t offer more detail.

A big emphasis of today’s briefing was on the shift to algorithmic search and the vertical integrations. On the search side, results are now driven by proximity and popularity (clicks and reviews) compared with the more traditional Yellow Pages model that pushed paid advertisers over relevance. The new site also offers neighborhood search, which Isaacs said will be refined and improved over time.

In addition, the site features new Bing maps that include traffic info and roll-over driving directions. YP.com also now offers both businesses and consumers the opportunity to amend listings (subject to validation). For example, if a consumer sees a listing for a restaurant she knows has closed down, she can note this on the listing, and subject to confirmation, it will be removed. A business can add content to its listing in the same manner.

The vertical integrations add a serious transactional capability, all while remaining inside the YP.com domain. For example, restaurants that are OpenTable.com clients have the “reserve a table” capability built into the listing so a consumer can book a table within YP.com using OpenTable. AT&T has done similar integrations with Vast.com (to search for new and used cars), Hotels.com for travel and Zvents for events. The whole idea, according to Isaacs, is to create a seamless user experience.

Is the new site revolutionary? Maybe not. But it is a well-executed leap forward. SuperMedia similarly has upgraded its site with the consumer experience placed front and center. The big challenge for AT&T will be to make the new brand resonate with consumers as a place to go for movies, cars, hotels, places to eat and so on. That will take both resources and creativity, so we’re anxious to learn more about the company’s marketing plan for YP.com.

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