Earlier this week Yahoo upgraded its Travel Guides with more dynamic mapping (including satellite and hybrid maps), more community features and the addition of a "My Travel Module," not unlike the recent introduction of "My Local" on Yahoo Local....
Yahoo is launching (in beta) paid-search ads in mobile in the U.S. and expanding its test program in the U.K. Only a "select group of advertisers" are initially included (it's not clear what the criteria are). But the number of advertisers will...
From a marketer's point of view, one of the undesirable characteristics of the Internet in general and the local Internet in particular is audience fragmentation. Like other segments in local, classifieds are growing -- dramatically according to...
SES Local starts today in Denver, so it's timely that comScore released new local search data, which they'll be presenting at the show. Here are the top-level findings: "According to the study, 63 percent of U.S. Internet users (or...
Yahoo and OMD issued the findings from the latest round of their ongoing global research project in 16 countries that involves online surveys and in-person interviews. What they found is that through technology and multitasking families are...
Microsoft announced the launch of "Digital Advertising Solutions" and a related media campaign to promote it. What is "Digital Advertising Solitions?" It's an effort to bring together, in one convenient buying environment, Microsoft's extensive...
As the housing market cools, the real estate vertical is heating up. Today, real estate search engine Trulia launched several new features, a week after Zillow introduced new functionality and about three weeks after Yahoo! Real Estate announced...
Echoing earlier deals with Yahoo and Google, Nokia, the world's largest mobile handset maker, has said it will integrate Microsoft's Live search into its mobile search offering. Here's more from Reuters. The handset makers are doing deals with...
Real estate search site Zillow.com has added personalization features and the ability for homeowners to publish their own information beside Zillows home-valuation "Zestimates." A new "My Zillow" feature allows users to track homes and save...
Venerable local search provider Citysearch has launched a new site in San Diego, California. Recently, Citysearch has added "insider lists" (users' local favorites) and local sales events to its mix of editorial and user-generated content. After...
Directory, directory assistance and local search infrastructure provider Local Matters today announced a deal with European mobile search company Mobile People. According to the press release, "The collaboration between Local Matters and Mobile...
Yahoo has been rolling out its "FUSE" (find, use, share, extend) strategy across its many properties and has just made its popular Yahoo Local site more personal and simultaneously more "social." A number of new features have been integrated into...
In a development with potentially sweeping implications for local search and small business online marketing, Intuit has announced a partnership with Google that integrates AdWords campaign management and other Google-related features directly...
Windows Live Local (WLL) came out of beta today along with Live.com and Live Search. Chris Sherman covered the full upgrade and release in his Search Day article. This post will focus on WLL specifically. Derrick Connell, Microsoft's search...
The press release has yet to come out but it's official that RH Donnelley, the third largest US yellow pages publisher, has acquired local SEO/SEM firm LocalLaunch. That means YellowPages.com/AT&T is the only remaining major US yellow pages...
According to an article in today's MediaPost, Borrell Associates' newest local forecast is quite upbeat about geotargeted ad growth across categories, but especially in paid search. Borrell predicts a 32% increase in local advertising online,...
Several years ago I was in a room with Chuck Davis, then CEO of BizRate (Shopzilla), and pitched him the idea of including local, offline store information in the company's database. He cited the complexity of getting the local information and...
comScore is reporting that the classifieds category is gaining very fast with 47% annual traffic growth. Classifieds sites, as defined by comScore, collectively racked up 37.4 million monthly uniques in July. That's 22% penetration of the total...
Canada's Yellow Pages Group took its new search-driven yellow pages redesign out of beta over the weekend. Here's what we wrote when the new site initially launched. The press release outlines the new site's features and capabilities. Yellow...
If you're a credit card issuer, a cell phone carrier or an airline you use IVR (interactive voice response) phone trees to resolve calls and avoid sending what you deem to be unnecessary calls to your call center. Live agents are expensive. But...
