Business listings provider Localeze announced today that it will provide online business listings to Savvi, a savings network. Localeze business listings are standardized across its list of approximately 150 local search platform partners, including search engines, online directories, social networks, mobile apps and personal navigation devices. Savvi offers member-sourced and shared local deals in addition to discussion forums and advice from its community of bloggers. We spoke to Savvi CEO Darin Gilson today, who outlined the company’s strategy to build a “robust affiliate network.” Savvi works with local, national and online merchants. Its platform integrates online, mobile and community portals.

Savvi members receive cash rewards for member and merchant referrals, in addition to online savings and special deals featured in the Savvi store.

xAd, a mobile -local ad network, released its Q1 2012 report today that shows growth in the local-mobile search category, particularly transportation-related search within the travel sector. We’re not surprised by the results, given our forecast of total U.S. mobile ad spend growth from $1.7 billion last year to $7.7 billion by 2016. This puts local-mobile at just under 50 percent of total ad spend. Growth factors include smartphone penetration and advertiser evolution. xAd saw smartphone penetration rise six points to 50 percent from Q4 2011. Here are some data points:

xAd experienced a network increase of 300 percent between Q1 last year and this year’s results.Most mobile users entered queries related to local needs, with restaurants and gas stations taking the top spots. The top 10 travel keywords also indicate an opportunity in mobile for travel marketers.

In the run-up to Facebook’s ballyhooed IPO, BIA/Kelsey has released Wave III of its U.S. Social Media Advertising Forecast, which reveals overall market acceleration in 2012 and 2013, and steady growth in locally-targeted social spend.

From 2011 to 2016, U.S. social ad revenues will climb from $3.8 billion to $9.8 billion (21 percent CAGR). Several drivers will spur this growth: increased market awareness and adoption, improvement in ad unit performance, and greater penetration of dynamic formats such as video (with YouTube as the leader).

The social advertising forecast distinguishes display (Facebook, LinkedIn) from non-display (Twitter’s “promoted” products). However, the emergence of “native” advertising formats – Facebook’s Sponsored Stories appearing directly in newsfeeds, as just one example – creates new definitional challenges in display, and online/interactive as a whole.

Local social ad spend will pace with the methodical growth of the larger geo-targeted display market, rising from $840 million in 2011 to $3.1 billion in 2016 (29.8 percent CAGR). This would account for eight percent of the local online/interactive market at the end of the five-year range.

Social Local Media clients can access the full report here, which includes analysis of the key forecast drivers and examination of trends that could shape the market in future waves.

Verizon’s new Visual 411 app is designed to provide a more integrative user experience across mobile, FiOS TV and desktop devices. A common platform supports all three media. In addition, the free app lets users search local businesses and provides them with free restaurant coupons that can be shared with friends by email or Facebook. This free sharing feature also increases SMB visibility. Here’s a look at the Visual 411 mobile app and FiOS TV interactive widget:

Explaining the basics of local and social marketing to clients and prospects is a tough task for companies, which might come off as patronizing. Why not give them a book?

A couple of years ago, Yodle CEO Court Cunningham wrote Local Online Advertising for Dummies, which did a great job explaining local advertiser options. Now, Constant Contact CEO Gail Goodman has done the same for social media. Goodman calls it: “Engagement Marketing: How Small Business Wins in a Socially Connected World.”

As industry analysts, we look to Goodman for all kinds of insights into SMBs at every level. This book is more geared toward the basics of the engagement marketing cycle — as a means of managing good word of mouth. Goodman defines the cycle as providing the “Wow! Experience”; enticing customers to stay in touch; and engaging customers via social media. She emphasizes that SMBs really need to develop nuance when they are applying messaging via email, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and G+. Each has different strengths.

While a lot of SMBs don’t think they really have much to say — a real problem in working with them for social media — Goodman provides insights into possible subjects, and case studies on how and when to apply social media techniques, including discussions, promotions, events, polls/surveys, shared information, and news and announcements.

Google made up 66.5 percent of the U.S. market share in explicit core search in April, a 0.1 percentage point rise from the previous month, according to comScore’s qSearch analysis. Microsoft came in second at 15.4 percent and Yahoo rounded out the top 3 at 13.5 percent, slipping 0.2 percentage points.

ComScore excludes contextual searches from core search since they do not reflect user intent. Out of the 17.1 billion core searches Americans conducted in April, Google sites ranked first at 11.4 billion. Microsoft sites ranked second at 2.6 billion followed by Yahoo at 2.3 billion.

In April, 68.7 percent of searches carried organic search results from Google (up 0.1 percentage points versus March), while 25.9 percent of searches were powered by Bing.

Groupon Rewards — “the easiest rewards program in the world” — rolled out nationally this week after tests in 36 markets that began in October. The product is Groupon’s answer to the emerging “transaction marketing” space that many believe will be the natural successor to the daily deals business. BIA/Kelsey Marketplaces has counted more than 24 vendors vying in this segment, with solutions ranging from Cartera to Swipely.

In Groupon’s model, consumers register a credit or debit card with Groupon. Every time they shop at a participating merchant, they can get points that can be applied to a Groupon at the merchant. Spending is automatically tracked, and reward vouchers are unlocked when goals are hit.

Merchants set reward terms, such as free deserts or spa treatments after a certain number of trips or dollars spent. They don’t need to participate in Groupon’s voucher business, but Groupon gets a commission based on the value of the reward when it is redeemed. As part of Rewards, merchants receive reports assessing the profitability of their Groupon campaigns.

A full report is being issued for our Marketplaces clients.

With more than 1 million registered users and 87 million company profiles, Manta has established itself as a hub where small businesses can be found…and find each other. Now, having raised a fresh round of $44 million in funding from Norwest Venture Partners, Manta has its sights set on several ambitious growth targets — evolving into a deep SMB referral engine, full-serve marketing toolbox and ultimately a commerce network.

In a recent conversation with BIA/Kelsey, Manta CEO Pamela Springer shared her vision for how Manta’s growth initiatives can further empower the SMB online marketplace.

Fundamentally, Manta sees itself as a platform, not just a portal. Growth will spawn from platform infrastructure — “the ability to do things at scale” based on deep data acquisition that can spur “relationship acquisition.” The network continually enables more business content within listings — Twitter feeds (with embedded “follow me” button) can now be integrated — to enrich its data trove.

An example of platform mentality in action in under way with the “Manta Recommend” feature that was rolled out as part of the company’s Social Connections suite. Businesses can solicit and receive recommendations on their profile pages (there are already more than 40,000), then repackage these testimonials (not ratings) as widgets for placement on websites.

Business content can also be shared across various social networks, with a goal of allowing others to comment on it and then follow it into Manta. Springer calls this a business’ own personal “news river” on and through Manta.

Leveraging its deep data assets, Manta is eyeing a self-service ads platform that could command high CPMs. “You can take a snippet of content that you’ve already created and turn it into an ad.” This is consistent with other emerging native concepts such as Facebook’s Sponsored Stories, which aim for frictionless ad experiences that emanate from organic content.