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!

Search Engine Watch has a write-up of an interview between Danny Sullivan and blogging pioneer, turned AOL exec, turned VC Jason Calacanis.
Last time we wrote about Calacanis, he was given the task of turning the downtrodden Netscape brand into a social news network for AOL, akin to Digg. Recently he left AOL to become the …

Online recruitment spending has surpassed print recruitment spending for the first time, according to my friends and former colleagues at Borrell Associates. The line was crossed in 4Q 2006 (now), and online now accounts for US$5.9 billion, while print accounts for US$5.5 billion. Borrell further reports that newspaper Web sites have 18.6 percent of that …

BBC News reports on a Gartner study that predicts the number of blogs will peak at around 100 million next year.
“Most people who would ever start a web blog had already done so,” said the article, quoting Gartner analyst Daryl Plummer. This comes as many people who jumped on the blogging train over the past …

Following up on Seeking Alpha’s list of top tech events of ‘06 (included in our top 10 list roundup earlier in the week), Ashkan Karbasfrooshan lists his picks for the top trends that will shape online media in ‘07. On the list, not surprisingly, is online video.
Interestingly, RSS is also listed as gaining more traction …

It’s the end of the year, and you know what that means: top 10 time. Here are a few top 10 lists that relate to local search and online media:
 Search Engine Watch breaks apart the top 10 searches on Google and Yahoo! and compares news search with general search.
 Search Engine Journal also covers …

I’m a bit late on this news, but Digg.com started off the week with a new interface that users so far (going by anecdotal evidence) seem to really like. Part of the redesign involves the integration of videos and podcasts. The company hopes this will add value by supplementing its text links to popular online …

There has been lots of coverage throughout the blogosphere about Ask.com’s new experimental search interface Ask X. The reviews are overwhelmingly positive and I have to agree with most of them.
As we’ve mentioned in the past, differentiation should be a key strategy for any search engine looking to chip away at Google’s leading market …

It is the end of the year, and the executive turntable is spinning a little faster. Today, it was TrueLocal head Jake Baillie’s turn to announce his departure. TrueLocal, a spin-off from GeoSign, provides unique, local company URL information for Internet Yellow Pages and others. The company has hired an executive search firm, and will …

We understand that tomorrow morning the U.K. competition commission will release its final report on classified directories in the U.K. The report is expected to reaffirm the commission’s earlier recommendations that the longstanding rate cap on Yell be essentially rolled back beginning in 2008. Here is our last post on the issue. We also covered …

The Australian directory publisher Sensis is continuing its efforts to build online destinations for key verticals. Sensis recently unveiled a beta version of CarShowroom.com.au, a site that allows comparative shopping of new cars sold in Australia, according to this report in The Australian newspaper.
Sensis has pursued other verticals, some via its Trading Post acquisitions, including …

Last week we wrote about NearbyNow’s new mobile product.
Quoting myself:
Today’s announcement involves a mobile search platform that allows any mobile device user to send product queries via text to a mall’s designated NearbyNow short code. Info will be returned about product availability within that mall. This takes the mall directory to another level and could …

Simon Greenman, R.H. Donnelley senior VP of digital strategy innovation and products, confirmed today that he is stepping down and likely to be replaced by Sean Green, 36, who was promoted to VP of strategy and business development in October. Greenman says he basically declined to relocate from Denver to RHD headquarters in Cary, N.C. …

Just weeks after Yahoo! announced a management overhaul, AOL announced today that it will reorganize its corporate structure into six different divisions that will each report directly to COO Ron Grant. This is meant to clean up the communication tree within the company and eliminate some of the confusion, duplication and overlap between different initiatives. …

The difference in lookups between print Yellow Pages and Internet Yellow Pages and local search continues to be a big one. It is also a major reason why the channels haven’t converged as much as conventional wisdom would dictate.
Just this week, Ask released the Top 10 food, music and business search lookups for its revised …

As we reported last week, Zillow has taken a significant step by offering free listings in its real estate maps.
Zillow has since provided a counter on its home page that currently lists just over 9,000 sale listings so far and a little under 5,000 “make me move” listings in only one week. Greg Sterling …

On Tuesday, both my wife and I tried to get on Amazon.com from two separate computers. We had the same problem: We were both trying to pay for our purchases through Amazon’s One-Click Service, but the credit cards that were in Amazon’s system were past expiration. We were both unable to update our credit cards …

Online local commerce is seeping into nearly every facet of our lives. The latest: parking.
ABCNews.com reports on a start-up called SpotScout.com that wishes to create eBay-style auctions for parking spots. So in busy urban areas at specific times of the day or week, residents can treat their garages and driveways like remnant inventory. The system …

Following Tuesday’s post on Google’s efforts to bring more SMEs online, here is a recent audio interview with Google’s head of SME product development, Dan Rubinstein, (click to stream the audio if you have a browser plug in for streaming audio; or right click to download the file).
We hope to provide more audio interviews …

Telecom New Zealand has formed a partnership with Yahoo!7, a 50-50 partnership between Yahoo! and Australia’s Seven Network, to provide e-mail, search and other Internet services for the telco’s Xtra online business, The Australian newspaper has reported. The new joint venture company, called Yahoo! Xtra, replaces an existing partnership with MSN, which had been in …