Local search platform provider Local Matters has announced it will acquire mobile search platform provider mobilePeople for a combination of cash and stock. In a nutshell, this will extend Local Matters’ publisher partners’ ability to sell mobile and DA-delivered voice advertising in addition to print, IYP and a growing media bundle.
We’re seeing lots of …

The current distribution of the AT&T’s Real Yellow Pages produced by Dex (R.H. Donnelley) will no longer include the Chicago Metro Residential White Pages.
According to the release:
“Local residential listings are already included in the Chicago Neighborhood directories that we deliver in August, on DexKnows.com(TM) and on YELLOWPAGES.COM, so we felt it was better …

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 six cities in Street View, and has added 13 more. These cities map well (no pun) to Forbes’ recently released list of …

Google announced today that it has expanded its coverage of six cities in Street View, and has added 13 more:

Albuquerque, NM
Anchorage, AK
Austin, TX
Cleveland, OH
Fairbanks, AK
Little Rock, AR
Madison, WI
Nashville, TN
Rockford, IL
Richmond, VA
Spokane, WA
St. Petersburg, FL
Tampa, FL
These cities map well (no pun) to Forbes’ recently released list of top U.S. cities for businesses and careers. Along with this …

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. Overall print …

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 …

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 …

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.
Social media is quickly becoming the new local word of mouth. Yelp is …

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. According to the press release, “ Through a new strategic relationship with Google, LocalTel has become a Google Adwords authorized re-seller allowing businesses …

The balance between merchants and brands is being shifted by the increasingly common use of enhanced “product locators,” which adds store locations, maps — and frequently promotions such as coupons — to the mix, says Lauren Freedman, president of The E-Tailing Group in Chicago.
Freedman has just completed a round of shopper behavior research for …

Last week at SES New York, I had the chance to catch up with Alex Muller, CEO of new mobile shopping search product Slifter.
The mobile application allows users to search for products that can be found in local stores, including how many are on the shelf. To do this, it works with big-box retailers such …

I’ve spent quite a bit of time over the Easter holiday talking with friends and family about the economy and how they are dealing with the budget crunch we are all experiencing. One of the common threads of all these conversations has been the need to stay close to home, combine shopping trips and call …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

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 …

Do you really need to have raised millions of dollars to succeed in selling search solutions to small businesses? It is a question that I often ask myself.
Dan Hobin’s G5 Search Marketing in Bend, Ore., is profitable without having raised outside money. Hobin’s secret is initially focusing the five-year old, 17-person company on a …

The CBS-TV owned and operated stations are making a pitch to local bloggers and hyperlocal sites to add value to their sites with various news headline and video widgets, and take a share of ad revenues.
The CBS effort to land bloggers and find a way to compensate them is part of a growing trend among …