In case you missed any posts this week, here is a recap of coverage from the TKG blog. Click below to read each post in full.
Day: Consolidation Best for Dutch Market
My colleague Michael Taylor and I spent part of this week in London, making the rounds among some of the key players in global directories …

My colleague Michael Taylor and I spent part of this week in London, making the rounds among some of the key players in global directories based in that wonderful and surpassingly expensive city (sorry, kids, no souvenirs). One of our last calls was to see Andrew Day, CEO of Truvo (ex-World Directories), who walked us …

Back in April we wrote about BuzzLogic, a San Francisco-based company whose web based app finds out where particular topics are being discussed throughout the blogosphere and online news media.
This takes form in a dashboard that includes an overhead-map-like interface, showing all the inbound and outbound links to various sources of authority on a given …

While the other telcos have divested their Yellow Pages units, AT&T maintains that there is real synergy in pursuing a three-screen strategy. Rather than selling the YP unit and using the proceeds to build out its network, a la Verizon, AT&T is betting that there is a home field advantage in keeping its landline, mobile …

I just got off the phone with Pasadena, California-based Interpolls. The company has a number of rich media ad products and national brand ad clients, including HP, Scion and T-Mobile (full list here).
The company’s newest ad format is a widget-like product that brings polls into the mix. This places polls within banner ads to generate …

MerchantCircle has apparently changed its tact for getting small businesses to sign up. In the past, there have been numerous reports that it autodialed SMBs and notified them they had to check out the company’s Web site to see their “bad review.” Now, the message is much more positive.
An acquaintance in New York City transcribed a …

Eurekster is an interesting company in the general category of social search and discovery engines that provides a search widget (Swicki) for publishers to plant on their sites.
Swickis essentially refine search results over time based on the search behavior of past users of a given site. This makes search results more socially relevant over time, …

Google is simultaneously the most open and most shut business I can think of. On one hand, it is amazingly transparent. You walk around the two campuses in Mountain View and you can walk right by Larry and Sergey’s offices. During my short time there, I even spied CEO Eric Schmidt casually ambling by with …

Here is a recap of blog posts from the past week in case you missed any. Click below to read each post in full.
Stubbs Executive Interview: Video, UGC and Call Tracking
Yellowpages.com President Charles Stubbs stressed the IYP opportunity with online video, call tracking, social media and IPTV during an SES Chicago appearance this week. …

Yellowpages.com President Charles Stubbs stressed the IYP opportunity with online video, call tracking, social media and IPTV during an SES Chicago appearance this week.
Yellowpages.com is within striking distance to each of these, given the assets and initiatives of parent AT&T (U-verse IPTV program for example) as well as the acquisition of call tracking provider Ingenio, …

Google has been hosting a day-and-a-half local symposium here for local media, directory and vertical partners (and potential partners). Roughly 120 execs have come to the invite-only event — the glamour of the Google-plex campus, and excellent food and drink, making quite an impression. I spoke on a blogger panel with Perry Evans, Sebastian Provencher and …

Idearc has announced another distribution deal aimed at satisfying SMB demand for performance-based advertising on Superpages.com.

The latest deal involved Findology, a California-based company that operates the Zipcodez.com local search engine. Idearc will now place its PFP advertisers on the Zipcodez.com site. According to the press release, Zipcodez serves “3 billion searches per month.”

This deal continues a …

I was at SES Chicago yesterday moderating a couple of panels, sharing duty with my colleague Mike Boland on the local track presented by The Kelsey Group. My first opportunity of the day was to interview Charles Stubbs of Yellowpages.com. Those who were there benefited from a wide-ranging talk about how YPC is doing, why …

Deutsche Bank media analyst Paul Ginocchio and his team released a research report last week in which the bank reaffirmed its target share price for R.H. Donnelley (US$80 — reduced to US$65 this week after RHD issued its year-end guidance) and “Buy” rating and issued a less glowing assessment of Idearc Media, for which it …

The way Yahoo! breaks up business segments is always instructive — something we follow closely at The Kelsey Group as we do our best to sort out our Interactive Local Media, Marketplaces and Yellow Pages/Directional Advertising (“The Kelsey Report”) research programs.
Just as we’ve figured out what goes where — even borrowing Yahoo!’s “Marketplaces” name for …

European Directories and Truvo announced the possibility of a merger of their respective De Telefoongids and Gouden Gids directory operations in the Netherlands. According to the news release:
Cornel Riklin, CEO of European Directories, said “We are very excited about this proposed combination which will accelerate our plans to be a leading search company in The …

2007 U.S. advertising spending is expected to grow just 0.7 percent over 2006 to US$283.8 billion, according to McCann Erickson’s well-respected advertising forecaster, Robert Coen. In his biannual Insider’s Report, Coen downgraded his 2007 forecast for the second time in a year. In his June 2007 Insider’s Report, Coen forecasted a 3.1 percent increase over 2006, and …

It is hard for me to comprehend, but we are finally finished with ILM:07. We were grateful to have had 650 interesting and enthusiastic attendees from all over the world, 72 stimulating speakers, a full load of sponsors and an excellent partnership with SES.
Our next conference, April 30-May 2 at the Westin in Seattle, will …

A major benefit associated with R.H. Donnelley’s $345 million purchase of Business.com in July was getting Business.com founder Jake Winebaum. RHD needed an Internet change agent, and Winebaum clearly fit the bill after having played that role at Disney and other firms.
At ILM:07 in L.A. last week, Winebaum gave his first major speech since taking …

At the ILM:07 conference last week in L.A., we saw lots of great mapping demos from Google, mobilePeople, et al. But it was hard to nail down how maps and their related services (ZIP codes, neighborhood mapping and other spatial endeavors) specifically affect the local ecosystem.
Of course, we know something BIG is going on. Look …