Microsoft Canada Co. and Yellow Pages Group Canada announced that Microsoft Virtual Earth mapping software is now available on YellowPages.ca. The software licensing deal allows YPG to provide a more robust map experience for users. It will also enable the publisher to push the mapping technology to its various online properties and eventually create additional …

The latest item in the torrent of video announcements coming out of the local search world is TurnHere’s vendor relationship with Yellowpages.com, announced today.
After partnering with a handful of national chains such as InterContinental Hotels to shoot localized ads for their far-flung affiliates, the company has begun to partner with local search and Internet …

 EBay hasn’t really scored with any of its local initiatives during CEO Meg Whitman’s 10-year tenure (she is retiring). The local version of eBay Motors, for instance, never seems to get out of the gate.
But the stars seem better aligned for its Kijiji free classified effort, which is attracting almost 1.7 million users, according to U.S. data …

The Los Angeles Times and the rest of the Tribune Co. have been going through a very public belt tightening. The most recent round of cutbacks apparently played a role in the departure of Editor James O’Shea.
But when it comes to online, the company is positioning itself for rapid growth and is committing resources …

Local and national video ad producer Spot Runner announced today that it will acquire video production network GlobeShooter. This will bring the company better scalability and capability to deploy up to 1,200 professional videographers to far-flung locales, and shoot video on site.
This also brings Spot Runner beyond its low-cost/low(er) personalization product model to also include …

Below is a sampling of posts from the TKG blog, in case you missed any posts this week. Click below to read each post in full.
More Web 2.0 Ideas for Local Search Sites
OK, so I’m on a Web 2.0 kick. I guess I’ve made it my New Year’s resolution to get more publishers and local …

OK, so I’m on a Web 2.0 kick. I guess I’ve made it my New Year’s resolution to get more publishers and local search companies thinking about the broader meaning and business opportunities Web 2.0 presents beyond consumer reviews and online video.
I came across a terrific post from LDPodcast. While not a business-focused Web site, …

The New Yorker this week has an interesting piece by the prolific Ken Auletta about Google’s growing efforts to fend off attacks from anti-corporate lobbyist groups and legislators (some of whom see the Internet as a “series of tubes“).
This ties closely to the net neutrality debate, which asks whether telcos, as owners of the “tubes,” …

The recent hubbub over our “prediction” regarding print media usage — see my earlier blog — has created an exaggerated picture of the perils facing print Yellow Pages. While it is true print YP has some serious challenges, we often forget how well it still works for so many local businesses. Three recent personal experiences …

American Public Media’s Marketplace ran an interesting piece yesterday about the launch of NBC Everywhere, NBC’s foray into the expansive and growing out-of-home media market.
According to the piece, there are some 500,000 out-of-home display monitors delivering content and advertising into the aisles of large retailers, the seats of movie theaters and the gas pumps at gas …

A few weeks ago, my colleague Michael Taylor sent me a link to a webcast of a panel discussion from last year’s World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. I finally got the chance to watch the session titled The Impact of Web 2.0 and Emerging Social Network Models, and wanted to extend the recommendation to …

Canada’s Yellow Pages Group announced today that it will launch enhanced business profiles on Yellowpages.ca this spring, offering video ads and photo galleries. This joins U.S. IYPs Yellowpages.com, Yellowbook, Superpages and a growing set of local search sites that will offer video ads to small businesses.
According to the press release, the offer includes:
1) A dynamic …

Local search and automated rating site Grayboxx announced a series of upgrades today, meant to enhance and expand the site as well as infuse some personal flavor (read: trust) to its core rating features.
As we’ve written the company’s “implicit reviews” pull together disparate information sources to rate local businesses. The upside is that its algorithms …

Gannett has named PointRoll chief Chris Saridakis as its new senior vice president-chief digital officer, reporting to longtime vet Jack Williams, who has been named president of the division. PointRoll is a rich media ad agency that Gannett purchased in June 2005 for $100 million. Since then, it has incubated new revenue pools, such …

Linkedin has become a valuable resource for connecting business professionals. Recently Linkedin has added a professional services feature that allows members to share their business contacts in specific service categories. The new “Services” tab allows users to find people via recommendations from colleagues. You choose someone from your network, select which category you’re recommending them …

All right, this isn’t directly tied to local search, but it’s really cool. This morning, at the Macworld expo, Steve Jobs introduced the newest addition to the Apple family, the MacBook Air.

It’s small enough to fit into an interoffice envelope and gets five hours of battery life — significantly raising the bar for laptop mobility standards. …

Small-town newspapers and radio stations sometimes get into businesses that media companies in larger markets rarely do. They publish directories, develop Web sites, provide Internet access – you name it.
Thousands of newspapers are still family-owned. Increasingly, though, more are controlled by big aggregators of small-market media, such as Lee Enterprises, CNHI and GateHouse Media. These …

Pagesjaunes France has announced it will take a dramatic pricing approach in its largest urban markets where it will cut print costs by 20 percent while raising online costs on average by 50 percent. The goal of the pricing program is to move more revenues into online while reducing the revenue growth risk created by …

The first devices that run Google’s much-anticipated Android mobile operating system made a few appearances last week at CES. Here is the ‘GW4′ from Chinese mobile company Winstron:

As we’ve mentioned a few times, Android along with the iPhone will erode the carrier control that has stifled innovation in the mobile world thus far. Basically any …

The Kelsey Group has generated considerable attention (and some confusion) in the media and on the blogosphere from a statement that appeared in an Advisory issued by our Marketplaces program on Jan. 4 offering picks and predictions for 2008 (each TKG research practice issued a similar document).
The statement in question reads as follows (referring …