Superpages.com is getting good reviews from the ad community for new directions it is taking with its redesign (clean), ad serving formats (based on relevancy, performance and bidding) and its overall effort to update itself for a Google-centric marketplace (where appropriate).
Dick Larkin, the Small Business Commando, hasn’t been shy to express his opinion about …

Following the post on the verticalization of mobile search, I was able to talk to mobile search startup GoUAskMe.
Unlike the SMS based local search tools cited in that post, the company is trying to ride the growing wave of free directory assistance. Microsoft’s acquisition of Tellme and Google’s entrance to the space has shed …

As my colleague Neal Polachek noted in an earlier post, Local Matters this week launched a new beta version of Localguides.com, the local relocation and travel service originally known as areaguides.com that it purchased a couple of years ago, reportedly for $35 million. At the time of the acquisition, areaguides.com was a cash generator that …

Centro’s Summit in Chicago this week not only featured a positive outlook on national brands buying local online media, but also dealt with the impact of user-generated content and video on the local ad marketplace, and on the agencies themselves.
“Video is going to be huge,” but “just stick your ear to the ground to see …

A few notable things have happened around the local search and media worlds so far this week.
— As mentioned earlier, Local Matters launched a new local search destination.
— Google announced a series of refinements to its search technology at its “Searchology Day,” including video search and universal search. More is explained — including a webcast …

Local Matters today launched its localguides.com beta. The site will focus on delivering a richer local search experience.
It was clear when I saw the site earlier this year that CEO Perry Evans and team spent considerable time and energy talking with consumers and learning what content elements have the most impact on influencing buying decisions.
I’d …

Agency reps appearing at Centro’s Local Media Publisher Summit in Chicago said they’re ready to work with local media publishers, but they’re looking for non-cookie-cutter approaches. They emphasized that they’re overwhelmed by manpower shortages and that it is generally easier to work with portals, although it is not always “better” because portals don’t have the …

Do user reviews for sushi restaurants and promotions for Target and Lowe’s really mix? Especially when the user reviews come from a highly defined community like Judy’s Book? They may not, but Judy’s Book is motivated to try to ride both horses.
The hyper-local pioneer, which launched its first version in February 2005, changed direction a …

GigaOm’s NewTeeVee blog has screenshots of YouTube’s freshly integrated inline video ads. This is another example of the experimentation happening with online video advertising, to find a better and more seamless ad delivery method than the largely despised pre-roll ad.
Other interesting ad integration with video (as we wrote about here) is being developed by companies …

Scads of stories are popping up that say Google is a likely bidder for Yell Group, the U.K.-based publisher that also operates U.S. independent Yellow Book. Here is a story in today’s Independent newspaper, which cites sources saying Google is a likely bidder, while others are more skeptical and expect a private equity to scoop …

A new report from Accenture confirms much of what we already know to be true: that the majority of online product research leads to offline conversions.
Specifically, it reported that 67 percent of survey respondents prefer to make purchases in physical stores while 69 percent research product features online and 68 percent price shop online. Combining …

This week, I’ve had the chance to talk to a handful of local search start-ups. It is interesting to get a glimpse of products in development, and telling of the many angles there are to attack this important space.
Yesterday, I had the chance to talk to stealth mode local search start-up Palore. There …

They say all politics are local. But that doesn’t seem to include local online political advertising. The political pros at E-Voter Institute meeting held this morning in La Jolla said ad patterns are likely to shift in 2008 due to the early primaries, but they don’t expect local outlets or geotargeted search to be major …

Classified aggregator Oodle has partnered with increasingly popular social network Facebook. A post on the Oodle blog last night from CEO Craig Donato goes into detail.
This distribution channel for Oodle makes sense, given the classified activity that happens in and around college campuses, which is Facebook’s sweet spot. This helps Oodle more effectively reach an …

For subscribers of The Kelsey Group’s Interactive Local Media Program, a new report is available that examines Citysearch’s recent moves to redefine itself. This includes last week’s redesign, new personalization features and the integration of small-business video ads.
It also pans back to examine an overall evolution that includes the recent Insider Pages acquisition (and related …

NBC-Universal has unveiled DigPhilly, a city site designed to complement WCAU 10, an owned- and-operated station (and the homebase for the president of NBC O&Os). The site is serving as a template for NBC-U’s other O&Os, so the stakes are high. This is actually the first time NBC-U has really dived back into local on …

Most of us get a lot of e-newsletters every week. Most of them are powered by Constant Contact. But, given the alternative means that local businesses have to communicate (blogs, RSS, videos, podcasts, etc.), is the era of the e-newsletter fading?
Constant Contact doesn’t think so. The 250-person, Massachusetts-based company has 100,000-plus accounts. “We’re continuing to …

This week saw a healthy dose of Web site redesigns and feature enhancements. After Citysearch’s landmark relaunch on Wednesday, Superpages.com has redesigned its search page (via Greg Sterling). Yell.com also earlier in the week launched a new look and feel to its homepage, and AOL last week unveiled a new homepage design.
Local.com meanwhile rolled out …

Cox’s Palm Beach Post.com, fighting to stave off Craigslist and slackening ad trends for newspapers in general, has focused on creating a super site for shopping. The site is replete with free ads, new features such as video, free direct-connect calls to advertisers, online coupons, post-your-own photos and alternative channels beyond a Web site, including …

Building the perfect template for hyper-local media has been the endgame for a number of companies BackFence, American Town Networks, Pegasus News, and Citysquares, to name a few.
HyperLocal Media has been working at it as well, focusing on the synergies of a print/offline model to effectively sell advertising to the community. Since I …