Google Expands Newspaper Pilot Program
Summary
As expected, Google has expanded its newspaper ad pilot program and has made it easier and more visible to AdWords advertisers. The program has shown success, as we noted back in December, and represents one of the many flanks in Google’s march toward covering all media and all formats. The latter charge was emboldened by its DoubleClick acquisition (still facing congressional antitrust scrutiny), and various media continue to be brought into the fold through partnerships such as ClearChannel (radio). The newspaper effort specifically launched to resell print ads across 50 U.S. papers and has now been extended to 250. We expect more to follow.
Analysis
Newspapers with falling ad revenues will likely accept Google’s new source of ad dollars whole-heartedly, while some advertisers will appreciate the invitation to advertise in a print medium, previously out of reach. The effort specifically chops up full-page ads into smaller ads that are more affordable for a subset of businesses that might have had a long-standing desire to advertise in print but couldn’t afford it.
Newspapers, meanwhile, have always had the capability to do this, but from a sales channel perspective, it isn’t as attractive (opportunity cost) to go after a fragmented base of smaller businesses interested in smaller ad spends. Sales reps instead devote their attention to the car dealers, furniture showrooms and big-box retailers of the world.
Google’s self-provisioning ad campaign setup, on the other hand, makes this possible and essentially adds a sales channel for newspapers, albeit inferior to their own physical sales asset (an important and core strength, like Yellow Pages). Regardless, it opens up a new addressable market segment to newspapers at a time when they need it most.
Indeed, headlines of newspaper publishers’ woes continue unabated. The latest is Tribune Co.’s statements this week that the Los Angeles Times experienced one of its “worst quarters ever” in ad revenues and cash flow.
New Advertisers: For Better or Worse
The chopped-up ad revenues, however, could present a slight downside for newspapers that tie up with Google’s effort. Creating these affordable chunks of inventory essentially breaks up whole-page ads into a patchwork of smaller ads, characteristic of the pages that fill smaller free metro papers or readers.
Some papers could feel this will open the floodgates to questionable advertising or an overall look and feel that is below their level of “class.” However, the terms of the “bid-ask” marketplace allow publishers to accept the ads before they are sold. And overall, the positives outweigh these drawbacks in that this has proved to be a great way to dynamically place remnant inventory late in the publishing cycle, which is otherwise backfilled with house ads. In any case, newspapers aren’t really in a position to be turning away advertising.
In addition, Google is hoping this conversely adds appeal to AdWords and gets advertisers to use Google Analytics more often. These elements all tie together nicely if you think about it: Google Analytics can be used to arm advertisers with the knowledge of certain geographies that could use a boost in sales, and a corresponding print budget allocation. We’ll see what else comes of it. But for now the effort makes a lot of sense.
Meanwhile, Yahoo! continues to develop its “amigos” newspaper consortium. Though it similarly makes inroads to the newspaper world, this setup is much different from Google’s effort. Yahoo!’s efforts instead live entirely online and will work toward beefing up its own content across its network (Yahoo! News, HotJobs etc.) with newspaper content, while conversely providing newspaper publishers much-needed online functionality, technology assistance and online know-how. We’re also bullish on this effort and will continue to watch closely.
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Related TKG Reports: White Paper: Newspapers 2.0 Part 4: Building Online Newspapers in a Web 2.0 World, Advisory: Newspapers Team Up Online To Nab National Advertisers
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[…] A couple of weeks ago, Citysearch formed a distribution deal with AOL that pushed its content and ads throughout the AOL Local Network. As we wrote here, this had a close resemblance to the December deal the company formed with Local.com. […]
Pingback by Kelsey Group Blogs » Citysearch Keeps Distribution Deals Rolling — February 26, 2008 @ 7:21 am
[…] As I noted in a blog about The Kelsey Group’s Local Online Media event in London last week, analysts, speakers and the audience were positively upbeat about the Yellow Pages business. The feeling by all was that the stock market has overreacted to a few pieces of negative information about Yellow Pages. This has been exacerbated by the 20-something-year-old bloggers who spend all day at their computers and don’t ever want to admit doing something that is seen as old school. Come to think of it, that’s exactly the way my friends and I were when we were in our 20s. It’s just that we didn’t have the ability to get quoted in a Google Alert by mentioning a few key words. […]
Pingback by Kelsey Group Blogs » The Power of Public Relations for Yellow Pages — February 27, 2008 @ 6:20 am
[…] Yelp has become a poster child for how to build a local reviews site and has become a clear favorite of the twenty and thirty-something urban “foodie”. Its success has also spawned a number of similar models in Europe we talked to last week including Qype, Welovelocal and TouchLocal. […]
Pingback by Kelsey Group Blogs » Yelp Gets a Boost — February 27, 2008 @ 2:02 pm
[…] Mike Boland comments… Yelp has become a poster child for how to build a local reviews site and has become a clear favorite of the twenty and thirty-something urban “foodie”. […]
Pingback by Yelp, Local Online Leader, worth $200M? at Ghost of Midnight — February 27, 2008 @ 9:56 pm
[…] Earlier this week, I got the chance to meet with local video production house TurnHere and get a peek under the hood. The company is working on an advertiser facing production management platform that will help it scale up to increased business levels, which are already happening through yellow pages reselling efforts. […]
Pingback by Kelsey Group Blogs » Automating Local Video: A Conversation with TurnHere — February 28, 2008 @ 9:01 am
[…] It was also very interesting to sit in the audience at the recent London Kelsey Conference, where two European Financial analysts gave a surprisingly calm view of the valuation challenges facing YP, as blogged about by John Kelsey. […]
Pingback by evans ink » Blog Archive » the geography of YP valuation — February 28, 2008 @ 10:51 am
[…] In its short history, Yelp has become a model for how to build a local review site and has become a clear favorite of the twenty- and thirty-something urban “foodie.” Its success has also spawned a number of similar models in Europe. Last week we talked to Qype, Welovelocal and TouchLocal. […]
Pingback by Kelsey Group Blogs » Yelp Gets a Boost — February 28, 2008 @ 7:43 pm
[…] http://blog.kelseygroup.com/index.php/2008/02/19/classifieds-on-video-four-examples-here […]
Pingback by Marketing « Freelancing101 — February 28, 2008 @ 9:56 pm
[…] Here is a recap of posts from the past week on the TKG blog, in case you missed any. Click below to read each post in full. 750 Newspapers Working With Google on Print Ads Program Google’s Print Ads program, which sells contextual display space in print newspapers, is now working with 750 newspapers, according to Stephanie Davis, Print Ads head of publisher development. Davis was speaking on a panel at this week’s NAA Marketing conference in Orlando. (Read more…)Automating Local Video: A Conversation With TurnHere Earlier this week, I had the chance to meet with local video production house TurnHere and take a peek under the hood. The company is working on an advertiser facing production management platform that will help it scale up to increased business levels, which is already happening through Yellow Pages reselling efforts. (Read more…) […]
Pingback by Kelsey Group Blogs » TKG Data and Analysis: A Weekly Recap — March 3, 2008 @ 11:49 am
[…] unknown just wrote an article aboutHere’s a preview of it: […]
Pingback by LCD TVs » Blog Archive » Krillion Powers Panasonic Product Search — March 4, 2008 @ 1:16 am
[…] More recently, however, the company has been steadily building up its local capabilities, first by acquiring a videographer network a couple of months back – a step that put it in competition against companies such as TurnHere and Denver Multimedia, both of which are being resold by city guides, Yellow Pages and other local resellers. […]
Pingback by The Local Onliner » SpotRunner Buys Weblistic, Pumping Up Local Sales Effort — March 4, 2008 @ 6:14 am
[…] More recently, however, the company has been steadily building up its local capabilities, first by acquiring a videographer network a couple of months back – a step that put it in competition against companies such as TurnHere and Denver Multimedia, both of which are being resold by city guides, Yellow Pages and other local resellers. […]
Pingback by Kelsey Group Blogs » SpotRunner Buys Weblistic, Pumping Up Local Sales Effort — March 4, 2008 @ 6:16 am
[…] The company hopes this will create a unique user experience and an advertising opportunity within some verticals conducive to checking out a space before visiting (think restaurants and hotels). The same can be said for SMB video advertising, gaining popularity among many SMBs in the restaurant vertical. […]
Pingback by Kelsey Group Blogs » 3-D Mapping News: Everyscape and TeleAtlas — March 5, 2008 @ 11:43 am
[…] Broadband penetration and killer apps such as YouTube have popularized online video (comScore data here) almost to the point of an expectation in search (and by extension, local search). […]
Pingback by Kelsey Group Blogs » Local Video Gets More Attention; SEO is the Key — March 6, 2008 @ 11:28 am
[…] In the world of local experts, all of whom I respect, no one takes the extreme view: See Greg Sterling, John Kelsey, Perry Evans. The consensus is that we’re looking at a slow decline — while they ought to get it in gear, YP companies have valuable assets (revenue, sales force, customer relationships) and time to react. […]
Pingback by Time, tide and the print YP « Think Locally — March 7, 2008 @ 12:05 pm
[…] Local Video Gets More Attention; SEO is Key […]
Pingback by Weekly Wrapup - 7 March 2008 | LocalPoint - Perspectives on the Local Internet — March 7, 2008 @ 1:04 pm
[…] Here is a recap of blog posts from this week in case you missed any. Click below to read each post in full. OK, Here’s The Lineup for Seattle, April 30-May 2 It’s been a lot of fun putting this together – a “who’s who” lineup for Kelsey’s Drilling Down on Local: Marketplaces, which takes places April 30-May 2 in Seattle (a favorite city). This show, entirely inspired by the in-depth analysis being done by Kelsey’s Marketplaces research program, takes a fresh stab at everything, with a major focus on verticals, community and classifieds – all from an exclusively LOCAL perspective. (Read more…) Local Video Gets More Attention; SEO Is Key Mixpo’s Glenn Pingul has an interesting column in Search Engine Land today about online video’s growing relevance as an ad vehicle for SMBs. He hits on all the main points, discussed here in the past, about video’s benefits for local advertising, including: (Read more…) […]
Pingback by Kelsey Group Blogs » TKG Data and Analysis: A Weekly Recap — March 7, 2008 @ 3:21 pm
[…] So what separates Geosign from the rest of the local universe, which also depends heavily on search-engine traffic? Witness this chart from Hitwise, recently highlighted by Mike Boland at Kelsey: […]
Pingback by Geosign of the Apocalypse « Think Locally — March 10, 2008 @ 12:34 pm
[…] unlike some other local video vendors including TurnHere, Denver Multimedia, and EZShow, it hasn’t yet endeavored to work with Yellow Pages publishers as distribution and sales channelThis could change according to Nesamoney who acknowleges the scale that can be gained through yellow pages reseller channels and the quality inventory held by well traveled IYPs. In the meantime, ithave to join the ranks of local video vendors lining up to prove value to this coveted YP channel. Blog: Local Media Blog, Video Posted by: Mike Boland at 1:06 pm- […]
Pingback by Kelsey Group Blogs » More Online Local Video: Jivox Launches — March 10, 2008 @ 1:09 pm
[…] This follows Local.com’s similar deal with Citysearch in December, and its integration of 2 million Yelp! reviews in January. It also follows what seems to be an uptick in distribution partnerships like this lately. Many of them have involved Citysearch, including recent deals with Marchex and AOL’s Local Network. […]
Pingback by Kelsey Group Blogs » Local Distribution Deals Keep Rolling: Local.com and Idearc — March 11, 2008 @ 10:17 am
[…] We always recommend to clients if possible to make some video a part of their search marketing mix. Congrats to eLocalListing for being able to pull this one off on such a large scale! You can read more about this on Greg Sterling’s post about eLocal Listing, or the Kelsey blog post on eLocal Listing. […]
Pingback by eLocalListing Now Offers Local Video SEO | seOverflow Blog — March 12, 2008 @ 11:28 am
[…] To follow up on the recent post about Yelp’s funding, I was able to sit down with Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppleman yesterday at the company’s San Francisco headquarters. […]
Pingback by Kelsey Group Blogs » Yelp Gets a Boost, Part II — March 12, 2008 @ 6:39 pm
[…] Mike Boland got to chat with Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppleman and posted his thoughts. […]
Pingback by This post is both snarky and a challenge - Tech Soapbox — March 12, 2008 @ 7:12 pm
[…] Mike Boland writes today about Yelp, including… […]
Pingback by Yelp Expansion Plans at Ghost of Midnight — March 12, 2008 @ 10:29 pm
[…] It was interesting to see the Yellow Pages Association release its usage data showing print usage was stable at 13.4 billion and IYP usage had increased to 3.8 billion in 2007. While the overall usage figure is a 3 percent increase from 2006, which is encouraging, zeroing in solely on usage may be taking away from stronger measures of value. Just as online has shifted from a focus purely on clicks to a broader definition of value based on calls and leads, the Yellow Pages Industry should follow this lead in marketing the medium. […]
Pingback by Kelsey Group Blogs » Yellow Pages - It’s About Leads — March 13, 2008 @ 12:23 pm
[…] But while Livejournal slowly implodes, Yelp’s doing pretty darn well. It’s a much younger site than Livejournal, but I look at it as a site that’s doing a lot of things right. The review website has a small but very devoted following in most of the major cities, and there’s a healthy contingent of Boston Yelpers. I’m one of them. Yelp not only exemplifies the Ultimate Web 2.0 Ethos of transparency and interactivity (putting the users in control), it also provides a fascinating model of how to turn that into money. And, as we all well know, that’s something a lot of people are scrambling to figure out. […]
Pingback by Age != wisdom: Why does Livejournal keep getting it wrong? @ mvarmazis.com — March 13, 2008 @ 1:06 pm
[…] Yellow Pages - It’s About Leads Published in March 14th, 2008 Posted by Pest Control in Pests Miss Kitty wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptMovers, 38:1. Insurance, 33:1. Air Conditioning Contractors, 27:1. Attorneys, 18:1. Plumbers, 14:1. Physicians, 13:1. Auto Repair, 11:1. Storage, 10:1. Dentist, 8:1. Pest Control, 7:1 … […]
Pingback by Yellow Pages - It’s About Leads | Pest Identification — March 14, 2008 @ 4:19 pm
[…] The Kelsey Group has it right. The Yellow Pages is all about leads. That’s why small businesses consider it such a dominant part of their local advertising. […]
Pingback by Matchpoint Weblog » Yellow Pages - it’s about leads — March 16, 2008 @ 12:28 am
[…] Mike Boland / The Kelsey Group […]
Pingback by Local Search in 2008 » Small Business SEM — March 17, 2008 @ 4:27 pm
[…] Some work has already been done to adapt the printed product to the urban core, such as reducing book scale and rescoping to smaller trading areas, doing more hyper-local directories and so on. But it seems that more innovation, and risk taking, is needed. In France, for example, Pages Jaunes has acknowledged that in Paris, print is secondary to its online product. The publisher has also made it clear that print still reigns supreme in much of the rest of France. This distinction needs to be acknowledged and products need to be developed accordingly. […]
Pingback by Kelsey Group Blogs » More Yellow Bashing — March 18, 2008 @ 8:08 am
[…] The Kelsey Group recently blogged about the local business search marketing industry. As I’ll blog about in the next post, the local internet marketing market is growing even faster than expected. More local businesses are going online, shifting their marketing budgets, especially to paid search. […]
Pingback by Kelsey Group on the Local Search Engine Marketing Industry — March 18, 2008 @ 8:12 am
[…] Mike Boland/The Kelsey Group- Â Local on Local: A New Report from Marchex […]
Pingback by See What People Are Saying About Marchex’s Local Report | LocalPoint - Perspectives on the Local Internet — March 18, 2008 @ 1:48 pm
[…] The whole industry needs to work on this. I’m afraid we’re getting close to a perfect storm where the stock value drop is associated with usage drop permanently. As I suggested in the Kelsey Group blog yesterday, “One way to re-join the conversation would be for directory publishers to start blogging. They all have very smart CEOs and VPs, who usually have a lot to say, but we only communicate behind closed doors or in industry conferences. It’s time for the industry to get back its share of voice and I think it would help to address the media bashing that’s currently happening.” […]
Pingback by The Praized Blog » Blog Archive » Approaching a Perfect Storm in the Print Directory Space? — March 19, 2008 @ 5:05 am
[…] “But Jacobsen (and his business partner, classified consultant Janet DeGeorge) have pressed on. To me, its prospects are still iffy. But it now has deals with 10 initial newspapers, including The Pittsburgh Post Gazette, The Provo Herald and The Spokesman Review in Spokane, Washington. Three more papers are coming online soon. The revenue comes from flat fees, based in print circulation. In the future, Google ads or the equivalent might be added.” More right here. […]
Pingback by Internet video classified ads -will the idea stick? | Video Success Secrets — March 19, 2008 @ 1:15 pm
[…] Kelsey Group analyst, Peter Krasilovsky, covers G5 Search Marketing in his vertical case study column. Click Here to read the coverage. […]
Pingback by G5 Search Marketing News & Events » Blog Archive » G5 Covered by Kelsey Analyst - Peter Krasilovsky — March 19, 2008 @ 10:03 pm
[…] Furthermore, there are some opportunities to combine these options to more effectively track search influence on real conversions. Krillion is working on some of these offline conversion drivers, and a newer company called Slifter is bringing some of these features to mobile. […]
Pingback by Kelsey Group Blogs » Talking Local at SES New York — March 20, 2008 @ 2:07 am
[…] Seems that the Yellow Pages, contrary to popular belief, are continuing to take the same path as newspapers had to take a few years back. Dwindling usage and interest is forcing them to either stay innovative or eventually go out of business. […]
Pingback by » Old Timer: Remember When We Looked Up Phone Numbers in a BOOK?! — March 20, 2008 @ 12:45 pm
[…] See recent TKG interview with Local Matters CEO Perry Evans. Blog: Local Media Blog, Internet Yellow Pages, International Markets Posted by: Mike Boland at 1:09 pm- […]
Pingback by Kelsey Group Blogs » Local Matters Launches Local Guide Platform — March 20, 2008 @ 2:03 pm
[…] We knew it was coming sooner or later. Google has begun to allow users to upload video directly into the Local Business Center. Companies such as TurnHere and eLocalListing were already uploading this content for their SMB clients via direct partnership, but this essentially makes it possible for more firms to do it with less friction. […]
Pingback by Kelsey Group Blogs » Google’s LBC; Now with More Fiber — March 20, 2008 @ 7:23 pm
[…] Hey readers, Webvisible just raised a bunch of money and Spotrunner just bought Weblistic. I am curious if any of you out there have used any of the local search engine advertising solutions like ReachLocal, Webvisible, OrangeSoda, etc. and what your experiences have been.  If you have some thoughts please email them to me at localseo at localseoguide.com. Thanks. […]
Pingback by Local Search Engine Advertising Solutions: Feedback Wanted » » Google Adsense News — March 23, 2008 @ 5:30 am
[…] This takes the opportunity being tapped by Krillion, NearbyNow and few others, and brings it to the mobile device. The opportunity, in a nutshell, is to build products that take the reality to heart that the majority of U.S. retail activity happens offline in physical stores (as opposed to e-commerce). Effectively leading these offline conversions and tracking them with things such as coupons, reserve online, is the goal.Slifter brings an added dimension to the opportunity given that the phone is present when the consumer walks in the store, allowing for the potential for more effective tracking (think mobile coupons or send to phone functionality for product results). Having local product search take place on the phone also extends the use case beyond searching at home, to also include more serendipitous or on the fly product searches while out on the town. It also makes a lot of sense in certain use cases such as holiday shopping, where finding a hot item in stock, while scrambling around town to find it, can be a valued feature. […]
Pingback by Kelsey Group Blogs » Slifter Brings Local Shopping Search to Mobile — March 25, 2008 @ 11:03 am
[…] The future for IYP continues to look bright. The Kelsey Group forecasts IYP revenues will grow from US$3.7 billion to US$9.2 billion . Yes the industry is fragmented; however they continue to transform their business models and make some surprising, yet effective acquisitions. In addition, they are testing other ways to increase online share by expanding the product mix to become more of a one-stop shop for local advertising. This includes print, online and emerging local media such as video and eventually mobile. […]
Pingback by Strategic Partnerships Lead to Increase in Internet Yellow Pages Searches — March 25, 2008 @ 12:47 pm
[…] Here is a roundup of blog posts from last week in case you missed any. Click below to read each post in full. What is the iPhone’s Real Impact? M:Metrics released a study earlier this week that makes big claims about the iPhone’s impact on the mobile market. It points to high percentage of iPhone users that are accessing mobile data such as search, browsing and mobile entertainment. This all makes sense because iPhone users are mostly a self selected segment of mobile power users or early adopters that, not surprisingly, have a propensity towards mobile search and data (not to mention that all iPhones are tied to unlimited data plans). (read more…) Google’s LBC: Now With More Fiber We knew it was coming sooner or later. Google has begun to allow users to upload video directly into the Local Business Center. Companies such as TurnHere and eLocalListing were already uploading this content for their SMB clients via direct partnership, but this essentially makes it possible for more firms to do it with less friction. (read more…) LAT49: Reading Maps for Local Context (and Ad Placement) More and more, people are looking at what Google can’t (or won’t) do. One thing Google isn’t doing is selling a lot of ads on a hyperlocal basis. If you look for a plumber in Tribeca, you are likely to get ads for all of Manhattan. That might simply be an issue of making sure it has enough ads to fill the inventory. (read more…) Local Matters Launches Local Guide Platform Local Matters has announced a new publisher platform called Guidespot. The company works with a global who’s-who list of publishers to power their IYPs and online sites. This move extends its capability include community and UGC-driven local guides. This comes at an opportune time when many IYPs and newspaper sites are integrating social media in various ways (mostly user-generated ratings and reviews). (read more…) Talking Local at SES New York SES New York is winding down and there has been a lot of attention paid to local — much more so than in past SES shows. Specifically there was a track on day 1 that John Kelsey and I ran, and then another track on day 2 including an insightful session led by Urban Mapping CEO Ian White and others well versed in local such as Localeze’s Gib Olander. (read more…) Planet Discover CEO: ‘Our Role in Local Search’ Is there still a role in local search for a “niche” provider like Gannett’s Planet Discover? The question comes up after Boston.com VP of Product Bob Kempf said there really is no substitute for a major search engine tie, and that alternative solutions would be “second rate.” Planet Discover CEO David Lenzen certainly thinks there is a role for his company. In a note written in response to the Boston.com post, Lenzen articulates several reasons why the company is still relevant. (read more…) More Yellow Bashing When I read the article in The Boston Globe today that yet again chronicles the woes of big city Yellow Pages directories (full disclosure alert: I was interviewed for the Boston Globe article but not quoted), several thoughts came to mind. The first thought is that directory publishers need to gain more control over this issue, which seems to have taken on a life of its own. I realize this isn’t an easy task, but I do not know how many more dust-gathering-on-the-uncollected-phone-books-in-the-apartment-building-foyer stories this industry can take. (read more…) Cox, Yellow Book Join Forces U.S. independent publisher Yellow Book announced a distribution and co-branding deal with Cox Communications in which Yellow Book directories in key Cox markets will carry Cox branding and information on Cox products and services in the front of book. The deal currently involves Yellow Book directories in Providence, R.I., Pensacola, Fla., and Oklahoma City, Okla., but may be extended to other Cox markets in the future. Cox has 6.2 million residential and commercial customers. (read more…) WebVisible Lands $12 Million; Emphasizes Integrated SMB Solutions The small-business advertising arms race has gotten hotter in recent weeks, as companies eye a chance to add Google and Yahoo! search solutions, and other services to small-business marketing budgets once totally contained by Yellow Pages. First we had ReachLocal’s $305 million valuation based on a $55 million round of financing, sparking the whole marketplace. In early March, Spot Runner entered the game, acquiring Weblistic in an all-stock buy to power its 30 local sales offices with solutions that go beyond its core strength in video. (read more…) […]
Pingback by Kelsey Group Blogs » TKG Data and Analysis: A Weekly Recap — March 25, 2008 @ 2:05 pm
[…] For this to be useful to the average Facebook user, there will have to be a critical mass of participants (network effect) hat add it to their Facebook account and actively participate in local recommendations. Reviews generation on social/local sites like Yelp face a similar same challenge. […]
Pingback by Kelsey Group Blogs » Loladex Launches Today — March 26, 2008 @ 8:14 am
[…] • Several of the top analysts in the local-search industry wrote about us: Peter Krasilovsky, Greg Sterling, Mike Boland, and Andrew Shotland. Peter’s post was also picked up by the Kelsey Group’s blog, where he works with Mike. […]
Pingback by Media coverage roundup « Think Locally — March 27, 2008 @ 8:43 am
[…] Local merchant videos for example isn’t content that includes advertising — It is the advertising. As we’ve argued, this content has value for users in providing a richer local search experience, and it has clear appeal for advertisers interested in local branding. Though a majority of local video advertising in this context has happened within IYPs and local search sites (for good reason), there is also the opportunity to utilize YouTube as a free venue to distribute local merchant video advertising. […]
Pingback by Kelsey Group Blogs » YouTube Gives Insight to Video Producers — March 27, 2008 @ 1:21 pm
[…] Click here for full article. […]
Pingback by Search Perspective >> Topics Surrounding Search | TMP Directional Marketing » Blog Archive » Ability to Check Store Inventory from Mobile Phone — March 27, 2008 @ 2:38 pm
[…] Here is a roundup of blog posts from last week in case you missed any. Click below to read each post in full. What Is the iPhone’s Real Impact? M:Metrics released a study earlier this week that makes big claims about the iPhone’s impact on the mobile market. It points to the high percentage of iPhone users who are accessing mobile data such as search, browsing and mobile entertainment. This all makes sense because iPhone users are mostly a self selected segment of mobile power users or early adopters who, not surprisingly, have a propensity toward mobile search and data (not to mention that all iPhones are tied to unlimited data plans). (read more…) Google’s LBC: Now With More Fiber We knew it was coming sooner or later. Google has begun to allow users to upload video directly into the Local Business Center. Companies such as TurnHere and eLocalListing were already uploading this content for their SMB clients via direct partnership, but this essentially makes it possible for more firms to do it with less friction. (read more…) LAT49: Reading Maps for Local Context (and Ad Placement) More and more, people are looking at what Google can’t (or won’t) do. One thing Google isn’t doing is selling a lot of ads on a hyperlocal basis. If you look for a plumber in Tribeca, you are likely to get ads for all of Manhattan. That might simply be an issue of making sure it has enough ads to fill the inventory. (read more…) Local Matters Launches Local Guide Platform Local Matters has announced a new publisher platform called Guidespot. The company works with a global who’s-who list of publishers to power their IYPs and online sites. This move extends its capability include community and UGC-driven local guides. This comes at an opportune time when many IYPs and newspaper sites are integrating social media in various ways (mostly user-generated ratings and reviews). (read more…) Talking Local at SES New York SES New York is winding down and there has been a lot of attention paid to local — much more so than in past SES shows. Specifically there was a track on day 1 that John Kelsey and I ran, and then another track on day 2 including an insightful session led by Urban Mapping CEO Ian White and others well versed in local such as Localeze’s Gib Olander. (read more…) Planet Discover CEO: ‘Our Role in Local Search’ Is there still a role in local search for a “niche” provider like Gannett’s Planet Discover? The question comes up after Boston.com VP of Product Bob Kempf said there really is no substitute for a major search engine tie, and that alternative solutions would be “second rate.” Planet Discover CEO David Lenzen certainly thinks there is a role for his company. In a note written in response to the Boston.com post, Lenzen articulates several reasons why the company is still relevant. (read more…) More Yellow Bashing When I read the article in The Boston Globe today that yet again chronicles the woes of big city Yellow Pages directories (full disclosure alert: I was interviewed for the Boston Globe article but not quoted), several thoughts came to mind. The first thought is that directory publishers need to gain more control over this issue, which seems to have taken on a life of its own. I realize this isn’t an easy task, but I do not know how many more dust-gathering-on-the-uncollected-phone-books-in-the-apartment-building-foyer stories this industry can take. (read more…) Cox, Yellow Book Join Forces U.S. independent publisher Yellow Book announced a distribution and co-branding deal with Cox Communications in which Yellow Book directories in key Cox markets will carry Cox branding and information on Cox products and services in the front of book. The deal currently involves Yellow Book directories in Providence, R.I., Pensacola, Fla., and Oklahoma City, Okla., but may be extended to other Cox markets in the future. Cox has 6.2 million residential and commercial customers. (read more…) WebVisible Lands $12 Million; Emphasizes Integrated SMB Solutions The small-business advertising arms race has gotten hotter in recent weeks, as companies eye a chance to add Google and Yahoo! search solutions, and other services to small-business marketing budgets once totally contained by Yellow Pages. First we had ReachLocal’s $305 million valuation based on a $55 million round of financing, sparking the whole marketplace. In early March, Spot Runner entered the game, acquiring Weblistic in an all-stock buy to power its 30 local sales offices with solutions that go beyond its core strength in video. (read more…) […]
Pingback by Kelsey Group Blogs » TKG Data and Analysis: A Weekly Recap — March 28, 2008 @ 8:36 am
[…] Here is the week-in-blogging from TKG, in case you missed anything. Click below to read each post in full. Google’s Street View Cameras Go Offroading Google announced today that it has expanded its coverage of 6 cities in Street View, and has added 13 additional cities. These cities map well (no pun) to Forbes’ recently released list of top U.S. cities for businesses and careers. Along with this launch, Google has also freed the Street View API for publishers to embed street views directly into their sites or applications. (read more…) PagesJaunes se Porte Très Bien, Merci One of the most significant announcements in the past year about the Yellow Pages business was made by PagesJaunes. In order to get in front of the faster migration from print to online that is occurring in France’s major cities, the publisher reduced print advertising rates in Paris by 20 percent in 2008. (read more…) YouTube Offers Insight to Video Producers YouTube launched a series of new analytics features today, known as Insight. The product gives video producers more detailed information about where and when their videos were viewed. For now this drills down as far as state and country (using IP address) and day of the week. Future versions could get more granular with ZIP code level reporting and day parting. (read more…) More on Loladex: A Conversation With CEO Laurence Hooper If Facebook is really the next marketing platform, the guys at Loladex will have guessed right. The new rating and review company, formed by two alumni of AOL Search and Yellow Pages, had initially been incubated as a destination site that enables user reviews, business listings and third-party content from sites such as OpenTable.com and ServiceMagic.com. Sometime last year, the decision was made to build specifically for Facebook. (read more…) Loladex Launches Today Local/social search product Loladex launched this morning, currently built exclusively around a Facebook application. The application will specifically seek to tap into the trust inherent in a group of Facebook contacts, as a source of information on, and interaction around, local business information. (read more…) Google Adds LocalTel to AdWords Network of Resellers Lawrence, Massachusetts-based Yellow Pages publisher LocalTel has partnered with Google’s AdWords program to sell keywords on Google and Google Maps, and for ads to appear on partner sites within Google’s AdSense network. (read more…) […]
Pingback by Kelsey Group Blogs » TKG Data and Analysis: A Weekly Recap — March 28, 2008 @ 2:21 pm
[…] PagesJaunes se Porte Très Bien, Merci from TKG […]
Pingback by Interactive in Milwaukee » Blog Archives » Pages Jaunes lowers print rates — March 31, 2008 @ 10:08 am
[…] Kelsey Group analyst, Peter Krasilovsky, covers G5 Search Marketing in his vertical case study column. Click Here to read the coverage. […]
Pingback by G5 Search Marketing News & Events » Blog Archive » G5 Covered by Kelsey Analyst - Peter Krasilovsky — March 31, 2008 @ 3:37 pm
[…] Local Matters has been smart in the moves that it has made to provide much needed online functionality for yellow pages publishers, and its global partner/client list speaks for itself. The MobilePeople acquisition also comes weeks after the launch of its new socially media-driven city guide platform, which similarly broadens its capability to serve local media publishers. […]
Pingback by Kelsey Group Blogs » Local Matters Goes Mobile — March 31, 2008 @ 3:44 pm
[…] There are clearly lots of possible local applications along these lines. The local appeal can be enhanced by texting “set loc” to the service which remembers your explicit city or zip for future local searches, and finds answers and human guides accordingly. This local relevance will only grow, according to Bostic, as location awareness (GPS and triangulation) will be integrated to make local searches smarter. Location awareness, as we’ve mentioned, also knocks down an adoption barrier, and will be another enabling technology to prod mobile local search along in its slow march towards mainstream adoption. […]
Pingback by Kelsey Group Blogs » ChaCha Launches Voice Search: A Conversation with CEO Brad Bostic — April 1, 2008 @ 3:06 pm
[…] HondaSwap Forums has something worth reading today (ChaCha Launches Voice Search: A Conversation with Brad Bostic)Here’s a brief bit, but follow the link for the rest.The company is close to closing a deal with Indy 500 to have its service used for specific searches related to Indy Car racing at their events. […]
Pingback by ChaCha Launches Voice Search: A Conversation with Brad Bostic — April 1, 2008 @ 6:04 pm
[…] Mike Boland added an interesting post today (ChaCha Launches Voice Search: A Conversation with CEO Brad Bostic).Here’s a little bit of it:The company is close to closing a deal with Indy 500 to have its service used for specific searches related to Indy Car racing at their events. In addition to these licensing deals, it will also monetize with transactional based … […]
Pingback by ChaCha Launches Voice Search: A Conversation with CEO Brad Bostic — April 1, 2008 @ 6:06 pm
[…] Other opportunities beginning to make themselves known include using their expanding ranks of video content to drive more traffic through blended search queries in popular search engines. Given the amount of upstream traffic IYPs receive from search engines, this should be considered. […]
Pingback by Kelsey Group Blogs » Yellowpages.com’s New Home on MyYahoo! — April 2, 2008 @ 11:12 am
[…] Yahoo! announced today at CTIA that it will integrate voice search capability into its OneSearch mobile search application. This comes the day after human powered search engine ChaCha did the same thing with its mobile product. […]
Pingback by Kelsey Group Blogs » More on Voice Search: Yahoo! Enters the Ring — April 2, 2008 @ 4:35 pm
[…] This conversation usually happens around large brand advertising but there is still some applicability or learnings for SMBs and local search. Search Engine Guide today poses the question “Should You Start a Blog” including a checklist of business goals and abilities that should be considered first. For certain local businesses this can be a way to augment a print and online marketing campaign by generating buzz around a topic that is close to your business (think “how-to” blogs for home improvement or other trade services). […]
Pingback by Kelsey Group Blogs » A Tale of Two Blogs — April 3, 2008 @ 11:28 am
[…] Here is a recap of posts from the last week in case you missed any. Click below to read each post in full. Cobalt, Marchex Take Pay-Per-Call to Auto Dealers We thought there must be a reason why VoiceStar, Marchex’s Pay Per Call unit, had such a prominent presence at the North American Dealer Association show in February. Now we know: The company has just formed a reseller partnership with The Cobalt Group, which provides services to 40 percent of U.S. auto dealers. (read more…) […]
Pingback by Kelsey Group Blogs » TKG Data and Analysis: A Weekly Recap — April 6, 2008 @ 5:59 pm
[…] Kodak and Craigslist: A Tale of Two Blogs […]
Pingback by LocalPoint - Perspectives on the Local Internet — April 7, 2008 @ 7:47 am
[…] Coming off of its $7 million B round last month, 3D mapping provider Everyscape, announced today that it will expand its coverage to San Francisco, Philidelphia, and Washington D.C.. It now covers 15 total cities including its first batch, Boston, New York, Aspen, and Miami. […]
Pingback by Kelsey Group Blogs » Everyscape Comes to San Francisco (and Other Points East) — April 7, 2008 @ 12:31 pm
[…] For TurnHere, this is the fourth major local search or IYP deal it has signed in the past 12 months (others are Citysearch, YellowPages.com and Superpages). It’s personal on-site production style has proven to be a hit with IYPs and their advertisers. […]
Pingback by Kelsey Group Blogs » Kudzu Integrates Video from TurnHere — April 8, 2008 @ 11:31 am
[…] Video advertising, traditionally reserved for big businesses, has come within the grasp of SMBs with cheaper production technologies, online distribution, broadband penetration, and killer apps such as YouTube. This has of course led to viewers expectation of video in their search experiences; advertiser demand; and the acceleration in video integration by local searh sites (Cox’s Kudzu was the latest example earlier this week). […]
Pingback by Kelsey Group Blogs » Diversifying Local Video: A Conversation with PixelFish — April 9, 2008 @ 3:39 pm
[…] He correctly identifies location awareness and privacy controls as technical and social enablers for this to happen. More importantly it will be the open development environment of Android and the iPhone SDK that will get us there. He contrasts this with the current environment: The space is wide open at this point - no one has created an application that has gotten enough traction to go mainstream. That’s party because of tech limitations - browser-based networks don’t leverage the power of the mobile device, and client based applications are blocked by service providers and handset limitations. […]
Pingback by Kelsey Group Blogs » Will Social be the Killer App for Mobile? — April 10, 2008 @ 10:36 am
[…] Not to mention a likely lack of funding — or at least not enough to get over the hump of the trust thing, which would have required a lot of time, marketing/PR and positive reinforcement. The technology looks like it will still be given this chance though — living on in a more established destination. This is another case of the technology being more valuable than the destination (the whole platform vs. destination concept likened earlier this week to Everyscape’s opportunity) . […]
Pingback by Kelsey Group Blogs » GrayBoxx Shuts Down — April 10, 2008 @ 11:45 am
[…] Stepping back, this is another example of the new mobile creativity and innovation that is starting to take form (see mobile social post yesterday), to drive mainstream adoption. One driver will be enabling technologies that make it easier to use mobile search apps (location awareness for example). This product can be considered in the same boat because it replaces opening and navigating a mobile browser with the more user friendly action of snapping a picture. […]
Pingback by Kelsey Group Blogs » Citysearch Talks Mobile — April 10, 2008 @ 11:43 pm
[…] Local community and recommendations site Angie’s List received $35 million in funding today from Battery Ventures. This comes a day after local ratings site Grayboxx sold its assets and shut down. Together this could say something about the importance for personal touch in local niches, based on community interaction. […]
Pingback by Kelsey Group Blogs » Friday Juxtaposition: Angie’s List Gets Funding — April 11, 2008 @ 9:55 am
[…] Keep it Simple Stepping back, this is another example of the new mobile creativity and innovation that is starting to take form (see mobile social post yesterday) to drive mainstream adoption. One driver will be enabling technologies that make it easier to use mobile search apps (location awareness, for example). This product can be considered in the same boat because it replaces opening and navigating a mobile browser with the more user-friendly action of snapping a picture. […]
Pingback by Kelsey Group Blogs » Citysearch Talks Mobile — April 11, 2008 @ 11:35 am
[…] Earlier this week, my colleague Charles Laughlin wrote a blog about the beginning of the YPA annual conference and exhibition entitled, Yellow Pages Industry Pledges Counteroffensive. That headline pretty much captures what was an upbeat event that attracted 600 attendees. As YPA President Neg Norton told the industry, “the root of the problem is a belief that we are going away.” The fact is that both the print business and the electronic piece suggest otherwise. […]
Pingback by Kelsey Group Blogs » New Tools, New World — April 11, 2008 @ 1:43 pm
[…] Finally, Mike Boland from The Kelsey Group writes on how local search meets video search with the company PixelFish. It’s a great read. To me, the concept is including local videos in search engine marketing to bring online customers to your physical door. […]
Pingback by Favorite Posts of the Week - All Local - With a Mapspam and Video Twist « LocalMN Blog — April 11, 2008 @ 10:39 pm
[…] Will Social Be the Killer App for Mobile? Michael Arrington scribes his vision for mobile social mashups in a TechCrunch post yesterday. He argues social networking could be the killer app of the mobile device, and one of the biggest beneficiaries of the expected surge in application development (we argue it will be local search). (read more…) […]
Pingback by Kelsey Group Blogs » TKG Data and Analysis: A Weekly Recap — April 14, 2008 @ 6:44 am
[…] already seen the former happen with today’s launch of BuzzSpot from eLocalListing Director of Product Development Steve Espinosa. The company will specialize in managing these campaigns forbusinesses, and I had the chance to talk to Steve on Friday about the road map which I’ll blog later today. Stay tuned. Blog: Local Media Blog Posted by: Mikeat 7:33 am- […]
Pingback by Kelsey Group Blogs » Google Pushes Further into Television — April 14, 2008 @ 7:42 am
[…] At its recent convention, the association promised a more aggressive push to let the world know that Yellow Pages isn’t dead and much of the recent tsunami of bad press has been based on a poor understanding of the fundamentals of the business. In addition to the press release, YPA research honcho Larry Small had a piece on Search Engine Land that touts the finding that print plus online usage is growing. […]
Pingback by Kelsey Group Blogs » YPA Tries to Dispell Myths on Usage — April 14, 2008 @ 3:41 pm
[…] Following up on this morning’s post, BuzzSpot has launched today as the first company that will take advantage of Google’s new television ads product. […]
Pingback by Kelsey Group Blogs » Google Pushes Further into Television, Part II: BuzzSpot Launches — April 14, 2008 @ 4:19 pm
[…] Related: SEM firm eLocal Listing has a video product as part of its SMB online marketikng package and one of its executives recently launched Buzzspot for SMBs. There’s also Mixpo, among a growing range of others. The challenge with self-serve online video is the same challenge with self-serve online marketing for SMBs. Kelsey’s Mike Boland has a nice write up of yet another SMB video startup VideoBloom. […]
Pingback by Spot Runner Hires Former MTV Executive « Screenwerk — April 15, 2008 @ 8:15 am
[…] The SMB video segment is getting very crowded quickly. It began with Spot Runner and TurnHere and quickly extended to Denver Multi-media, GlobeShooter (acquir