With little time to spare in the current year, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission has approved the merger of AT&T and BellSouth. This clears the way for the creation of a US$5.8 billion directory publishing entity, which will cover much of the United States and control YellowPages.com under a single roof, rather than the joint …

PaidContent reports that Jupitermedia has acquired online tech job Web site JustTechJobs.com, signifying a possible move into online classified verticals. It’s not completely clear whether this is a strategic acquisition or a financially driven one (paidContent suggests the latter), although fodder for speculation is present. Feel free to weigh in.

Barry Schwartz over at Search Engine Land points to an interesting St. Louis Post Dispatch article about the software and development processes from the likes of Navteq that sit underneath Google Maps, Yahoo! Maps, MapQuest and others. It’s an interesting look at a part of the equation that we rarely examine  including challenges like …

Gary Price reports (via Search Engine Land) that “Google” has ranked second in Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Year survey. The ranking pertains to the use of Google as a verb (i.e., to “Google” someone or something). Stephen Colbert’s “truthiness” took the top spot.
This shows yet again how Google is not only an online powerhouse but …

Just saw this Associated Press article that indicates a compromise may be in the offing to get the AT&T-BellSouth merger approved. The deal had been held up by the objections of Democrats on the Federal Communications Commission. The agreement may lead to approval of the merger as early as this week.
Once it happens, the merger …

We got this press release today from YellowPages.com announcing it has added a “send-to-mobile” feature that enables users to text a search result to their mobile phones for future use.
The press release illustrates the feature’s utility with the example of texting a taxi service phone number to one’s mobile in advance of some New Year’s …

The Small Business Administration has released its annual report on the small business economy. According to the SBA, a new high was reached in 2005 of 25.85 million small businesses in operation. More from Inc.com.

Following up on the post earlier this week about vertical search, here is a breakdown of the rise in usage of real estate Web sites from the Pew Internet & American Life Project (via eMarketer).

The Washington Post reports that Google’s initial program to sell remnant newspaper ad inventory has been a considerable success thus far, and that it will expand the program.
This will be a key ingredient in Google’s overall plan to be a one-stop shop for advertising across many media. Bundling newspaper ad sales (along with radio, video …

Things continue to heat up in the world of triple play. AT&T last week announced that it will begin to roll out its U-verse (IPTV, wireless, data and voice bundle) package on a limited basis in the San Francisco Bay Area. It also announced that it will scale back its initial rollout plans, a move …

The 360 Blog breaks down some upward trends in online marketing and predicts their fate in the coming year. The takeaway: More online spending as others have predicted (see longer term forecast in The Kelsey Group’s Global Yellow Pages Forecast); more of a balanced ad spend across various platforms (mobile, online, print, etc.); and the …

Search Engine Watch has an interesting article today on mobile search. One of the main takeaways is that mobile search is much different from online search.
This was a pervasive theme in a mobile panel at ILM:06, and in the keynote address of MapQuest VP and featured speaker Jim Greiner. Not only do you have to …

Yahoo! Tech writes about some of the ways you can sniff out local post holiday deals on electronics. There will surely be a torrent of sales in the coming week as retailers try to move excess holiday inventory  especially in popular categories such as flat screen TVs.
Many of the local shopping engines and retailer …

… or in this case, the mom test. My mother just signed up for Netflix, which was a telling sign for me that the company has been able to break through to more of a mainstream audience.
Though, Netflix doesn’t necessarily fall within our main coverage areas (local media, search and advertising), the “grandmother test” is …

I read an interesting blog post last week at Bill Slawski’s SEO by the Sea. He takes a step back to reaffirm that search and local are a great fit for each other, especially for finding things offline to buy and do locally.
The online-offline purchase funnel, and the realization of the portion of local searches …

Happy holidays to all TKG blog readers and everyone else out there. We’ll be back next week with more posts, and will launch into ‘07 with a set of New Year’s blogging resolutions. Stay tuned!

Bill Slawski today examines how a vertical strategy can be important in local search. This was a significant theme at ILM:06, and we’re beginning to see a shift toward vertical segmentation. Take a look. It’s an interesting read, and I’ll get the chance to dive deeper next week.

Yell Group will finally be allowed to set its own prices for advertising in its Yellow Pages directories starting in April 2008, according to a new ruling by the U.K. Competition Commission.
For the past several years, Yell has had to operate its telephone directories under a price control of RPI minus 6 percent, which meant …

The news has been full of the immense bonuses that are being paid to financial and legal executives because of their companies’ incredibly profitable year. The individuals whom we read about tend to be the investment bankers and traders or top attorneys who are on the firing line every day. Some may view the sheer …

Yootsa.com is one of the scrappier and newer U.S. “meta search engines.” Not yet one year old, the site considers itself a “new generation meta search engine,” by virtue of its simplicity and location-aware search function.
As part of its expansion plans, Yootsa recently launched a Yootsa.co.uk edition  and is planning on rolling out Yootsa.de …