Here is a great introductory article on the nuts and bolts of IPTV technology. Why is this important or relevant to local? The architecture of IPTV systems will allow for a two way street of communication between users and servers much like the IP architecture of the web …

I’m about to leave for the airport so I’ve only got a few more minutes to blog here . . .
Loren Baker at Search Engine Journal has written up some new features at Yahoo! answers, another component of the Yahoo! community/social search strategy. Here’s a description of the changes/upgrades from the Yahoo! Search Blog. …

Interesting story in yesterday’s National Post (Canada). The topic is not entirely new, the possible acquisition of a U.S. publisher by Canada’s Yellow Pages Group. The article does provide a sourced comment from YPG’s CFO, and it offers some detailed speculation of what YPG migth consider buying — namely choice pieces of Verizon Information Services …

There are many things happening that I’d like to write and post about, but I’ve been unable to because of travel. Yesterday I was at the NAA conference and moderated a very interesting panel on "free" classifieds. I attended another interesting discussion on local search and talked to many vendors in the exhibit hall. I …

eMarketer predicts an uptick in online auto ads this year. Auto advertisers will spend 1.9 billion in online advertising in 2006 and almost $2.7 in 2007 — up from 1.4 billion last year, according to the research firm.
Other notable facts cited by eMarketer:
* 70 percent of auto buyers use the Web at some point …

A study by research firm Compete (found via Search Engine Watch) found Google has the most loyalty among its users. Here is how the rest of the search engines stacked up:
* Google: 71.0% * Yahoo!: 48.1% * MSN: 27.8% …

Red Herring reports on a social search engine that has launched called PreFound. Like others in this growing space — led most notably by Yahoo! (Flickr, MyWeb, del.icio.us etc.) — its success will depend on gaining a critical mass of users to do all the tagging and indexing on …

If you just read the headline from each of the companies reporting on the new national syndication research results, you could be excused if you thought that a lot of companies are the most used Yellow Pages directories. Some companies are taking the results from a few cities and seem to be implying that they …

Online classifieds site LiveDeal.com launched a free rental listings service today. Read about it here and here.

Chris Sherman at Search Engine Watch writes up a bit of the history of Ask Jeeves now that the butler’s retirement is here. This is something that has been well over a year in coming. The question now is whether jettisoning the Jeeves part of the brand will help the engine gain share. Ask has …

MySpace’s phenomenal popularity with the teens and early twentysomethings generated a $580 million acquisition by the seventysomething Rupert Murdoch. Here are some truly impressive recent metrics on the site (according to comScore):

24.2 million unique users in October 2005
11.6 billion page views in October 2005
More page views than any destination other than Yahoo!, AOL and MSN.
Twice …

Today’s N.Y. Times (reg. req’d) has a pro-"net neutrality" editorial:
If access tiering takes hold, the Internet providers, rather than consumers, could become the driving force in how the Internet evolves. Those corporations’ profit-driven choices, rather than users’ choices, would determine which sites and methodologies succeed and fail. They also might be able to stifle …

When people have asked me about "vertical search" and the associated opportunity, I’ve argued that there is an opportunity but it’s mixed. Because the general search market is locked up right now we’re seeing a ton of companies offering a more specialized content experience with search as the hook or angle. It’s also the case …

Here’s a roundup of data by aggregator eMarketer on broadband adoption — now pegged at 61 percent of U.S. households, according to Ipsos. eMarketer summarizes that price is the major barrier to continued penetration in the U.S. market:
According to a new survey from the Yankee Group, the most common reason US consumers don’t subscribe …

There are a few interesting posts on the Lost Remote blog today that relate to our post yesterday about online vs. traditional broadcasting of the Olympic games. Read them here and here.

I’m restraining myself from using the term "Web2.0," which really is on the cusp of cliche status. But Judy’s Book has done some very interesting things to its site that if I were comfortable using that term … might describe some of what they’ve done.
First, they’ve redesigned the site in a much more graphically …

MySpace, the supersite for teens, has announced the launch of its own branded "mobile virtual network operator" network. The service and phones will be powered/provided by Helio LLC, which is a joint venture of Earthlink Inc. and South Korean carrier SK Telecom Co. The service will reportedly use the networks of Sprint and Verizon. No …

SiliconBeat blogs about Podbop, a site that combines podcasting and local. It allows you to hear podcasts of bands that are playing in the local market. One can search by artist or location. The site links to Eventful.com, which provides the venue information.
Local events are a relatively still undeveloped area online — probably a …

Like Yahoo! before it, Microsoft is now offering free basic Web sites to local/small businesses.
I haven’t set one up so I don’t know how "robust" it is compared with what Yahoo! offers. It’s pretty clearly a kind of "foot in the door" strategy to get SMEs on board.
I’ve long believed that free Web …

Search Engine Journal covers the upcoming Yahoo Search Marketing Searchlight Awards in N.Y. The program is highlighting the innovative work of agencies that have combined traditional campaigns with search marketing.
I’ll be racing from the Newspaper Association of America show in Orlando to N.Y. to be one of the "industry expert panelists" at the Yahoo! …