The numbers are looking very, very good for the Interactive Local Media:07 conference in L.A. Nov. 28-30. Internally, we think this one is a record breaker. Register and book the hotel while you can. The latter tends to sell out.
In recent weeks, we’ve been putting the final touches on the program. For instance, we’ve added …

There is a lot of buzz today around a Wall Street Journal article (sub req.) that reveals the latest in Google’s impending entrance into the mobile world. As reported in a recent New York Times article and supported in a previous blog post, this will likely involve a mobile operating system rather than an actual …

When it comes to third-party local ad sales, apparently, more is the merrier – especially with the powerful incentive of ReachLocal’s $300 million valuation. Yodle and Ambassador Internet are two of the more recent names to consider, on top of ReachLocal, WebVisible, Weblistic, Cornerstone, RHD’s LocalLaunch and Idearc’s Inceptor.
I met with the heads of Yodle (“Get …

Yellowpages.com today announced the release of a mobile local search site specifically designed to work on the iPhone and iPod Touch. This will be a mobile web based local search site accessible from the devices’ Safari web browser, and will include Yellowpages.com local listings, reviews and maps.
This speed to market will help it gain early …

Zillow announced this morning that it will integrate a new ad targeting feature known as HomeDirect, which will serve geographically, demographically and contextually relevant ads within individual home listings. This will come in three flavors; targeting individual homes that its algorithms determine to be near the point of sale, targeting homes that are of a …

Curbed.com, the fun, well-written and insightful Web site about local real estate culture and deals, has gotten $1.5 million in new financing from Gawker Media, individuals associated with Gawker and others, such as Brad Inman. The site is the brainchild of publisher Lockhart Steele, who used to run editorial for Gawker, a blogger network.
According to …

When is a local Yellow Pages not a local Yellow Pages? When a global gift shopping catalog is part of the directory. Idearc Media has partnered with Shop Yellow, an online and print gift catalog company offering gift items for every occasion from around the world. Starting with editions in Virginia and Pennsylvania, Idearc plans …

3-D mapping company EveryScape today launched its product for Boston, Miami, Aspen and New York. We’ve written a great deal about the potential for 3-D mapping to become a centerpiece of the local search experience in published reports and blog posts.

Most of that coverage has focused on Microsoft’s Virtual Earth 3-D, which provides an immersive …

Jennifer Dulski, who in July took the reins of all Yahoo!’s Marketplace properties (Local, Yellow Pages, Travel, Shopping, Autos and Real Estate), has resigned to become the CEO of a new venture-backed startup in Silicon Valley. Dulski, an eight-year veteran of Yahoo!, previously ran Autos. Her resignation is effective Nov. 8.
Taking Dulski’s place on an …

In New York City last week, I had breakfast at the new New York Times building at 41st and Eighth Avenue. The multi-hued Renzo Piano designed effort includes a 51-story, ecologically sensitive tower (28 floors for NYT), and on the ground floor, The Times Center, a “public amenity” that includes a 350-seat auditorium for lectures, …

France’s PagesJaunes has long been the dominant player in the country’s print directory market, but in recent quarters, what was a growing business now is struggling to generate positive revenue growth. Online, however, continues to be a strong suit for PagesJaunes, and its experience points to some key differences between some European markets, where IYPs …

In case you missed any, here is a sampling of posts from the TKG blog this week. Click below to read each post in full.
Yellow Pages Odds n’ Ends
Charles Laughlin takes a look at the week in Yellow Pages. (read more…)
San Diego Fires, My Family and the Web
A heartfelt thanks to all the people …

The Nordic directory publisher Eniro announces its third-quarter and nine-month 2007 earnings on Thursday, and while the news for print in Norway continues to be bad, print appears to have stabilized in Sweden, the publisher’s largest market. While print is down organically 1 percent through nine months, for the third quarter Swedish print revenues grew 4 …

I’ve collected a number of Yellow Pages-related items over the past week or so that are worth noting. So here it goes:
The Texas ad agency FKM has launched a new unit to focus on interactive Yellow Pages and related online advertising. It has hired Dale Granda, ex of Marquette Group and Berry, to run the operation. …

A heartfelt thanks to all the people who wrote in out of concern for my family and me vis-a-vis the San Diego fires. We’re fine, and very proud of the wonderful and loving way our entire community has responded to a shared tragedy.
I’m also very proud of the role our local Web sites played – and …

Mr. Local SEO Andrew Shotland writes today about vertically oriented Web site development and hosting products for small businesses. This is an interesting concept because it brings together two local trends we’ve written extensively about: Webification and verticalization.
First, with Webification, the concept is that there are many businesses out there that don’t have Web sites. …

R.H. Donnelley announced on its third-quarter earnings call Thursday that concurrent with first-quarter earnings next year it will pay a dividend equal to 25 percent of free cash flow. The publisher took some heat recently when it used money that might have gone to a dividend to invest in Business.com.
RHD also announced that ad sales …

After all the recent speculation that Facebook will create the next G,Y,M bidding war that will put the Right Media and DoubleClick deals to shame, news just hit the wires that Microsoft will be the one to invest in (not acquire) the social network.
This will come in the form of a $240 million equity …

I received an e-mail early this morning from Judy’s Book COO Chris DeVore saying that the company will wrap up operations. This comes as a surprise, because it was in the middle of a model transition from review-centric local social search to one built around local shopping search and coupons.
The new model seemed to have …

The game changing device and forebear to the iPhone turns six years old today. The unofficial Apple blog has the story, along with a video of Steve Jobs’ original unveiling keynote at Macworld.
It’s amazing how much the device has evolved since 2001; yet another piece of Moore’s Law in action (insane sales growth also doesn’t …