There wasn't much mainstream press fanfare (just a couple of pieces) about the launch of self-described next-generation shopping search engine Become.com (you have to register to use the beta).
Behind it are the folks that started MySimon, which has been squandered by CNET. Jason Dowdell thinks pretty highly of what they're doing from a technical …

How about: Firefox is the new Google? (Say that like you're from the "old country.") In other words (and nevermind that full page ad in the NY Times), is Firefox demonstrating the kind of grass roots traction that made Google what it is today?
Eh?

AOL's new and improved feature set for local will be on display starting today. AOL has revamped local in much the same way it stripped down and souped up its general Web search. There's lots of interesting new stuff to bring content and context together for users in an effort to improve the local experience. …

Most every traditional medium today faces challenges from new technologies. Yellow Pages and newspapers, the primary print directional media, are being affected mostly by the Internet. Radio faces the double whammy of iPod and other portable digital audio players and satellite radio. The former is a much more significant threat to radio, and Ad Age …

USAToday has an overview of cable companies working on delivering more targeted local advertising. Is it going to be a reality or simply more hype?
We're going to explore this, as well as Internet TV and video search, on April 20 at Drilling Down on Local.

Missed this one when it came out. But the NextSearchSurvey folks found that when they asked online respondents "If you were to choose one search engine out of the four major ones, which one would it be?"
Eighty-seven percent of something in excess of 3500 respondents said . . . Google. The survey was …

Very interesting story in the NYTimes today re Philadelphia becoming one big wireless hot spot. Many implications . . .
There are implications for ISPs (although the regulators seem prepared to protect the economic interests of corporations vs. the public), and for telcos and possibly mobile phone carriers, as Vonage and soon others will …

The Interactive TV revolutionâ€"long on hype, short on executionâ€"may not be "televised." It will be online instead. Yahoo!'s announcement that it will stream the full Showtime-produced "Fat Actress" is a milestone and ups the ante for Web companies doing video. The Web is starting to take away TV viewers, as well as ad dollars. In …

Eniro is a very progressive directory organization operating in several very progressive markets (including Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland) as well as some developing markets like Poland and Russia. It is probably fair to say that the company made too early a transition from a print company with an Internet business to an Internet company …

Google is offering more people the chance to open gmail accounts. Formerly this was a viral affair (which was very very smart marketing). Now, Google appears to be seeking to leverage gmail as the basis for an expanding relationship between the search engine and user (consumer/advertiser).
This is one way in to obtaining more personal …

Two interesting articles, one by Brad Stone of Newsweek on the data providers behind mapping sites/functionality.
Another by the NYTimes about 3-D mapping. This is where it's going.
Just wrote about maps today and we'll be covering this at Drilling Down on Local at the end of Day 1. Should be interesting.

This is sort of amazing. I was reading about pinot noir wines on the NYTimes' Web site (perhaps I was too influenced by Sideways). The Times liked a particular New Zealand pinot, Peregrine Central Otago 2001, better than the other wines they tasted.
Just as an informal test of whether I could find a store …

Published reports confirm that direct marketing company and database provider infoUSA (which provides the data for many of the top IYP/ local search properties) is seeking to buy online marketing firm Digital Impact.
Digital Impact, which previously acquired search engine marketing firm MarketLeap, offers a range of online marketing services. If the acquisition goes …

I recently noticed a press release on the merger of two relatively obscure publishers of Spanish-language Yellow Pages directories. The acquiring party is Hispanic Yellow Pages of America, backed by the private equity fund called Hispania Capital Partners LLC. The fund’s purpose is to build a Spanish-language directories business, and one of its chief backers …

DoubleClick and comScore released the results of a study about the relationship between search and e-commerce. This is similar to the comScore-Overture study conducted last year. The new findings underscore those of the earlier Overture study and reinforce the idea that branding will reshape search over the long term.
Here are the top-level findings:

Search plays …

For a very nice overview of the entire local search space, check out the Local Search Guide. More profiles and resources have been added.
Here's the new stuff:
"The Search Tools section of the Guide, which now includes a Mapping category, profiles products and services that enhance the search experience. Mapping companies, such as MapQuest.com …

Both MSN and Ask Jeeves have announced that they're going to spend money on TV to try and grab some search market share. Yahoo! has been spending (on TV, outdoor, etc.) for some time on search (and local). Several surveys have confirmed a tightening of the market in terms of usage (Kelsey Group data show …

So Fathom Online reported a crash after the holidays in keyword prices. But over the long term, they're going up up up (so implied Google in a BizWeek article ). The trend of branding dollars entering search means continued price inflation.
In case you're skeptical . . . from the SEMPO survey: "Brand awareness was …

Will telcos be able to do to cable TV (IPtv) what cable TV is starting to do to telcos with IP telephony?
And with the possible exception of SuperPages, will the remaining U.S. telco-YP owners spin off their directories to subsidize/retire debt associated with their sexier, expensive new ventures?

Google may begin to require users to register or otherwise provide personal information to use certain of its applications. An AP report attributed that idea to comments made by Google CEO Eric Schmidt during a four-hour meeting for Wall Street analysts at Google's Mountain View, CA headquarters. The rationale is that it would enable Google …