Call Genie announced today that it will partner with speech recognition company Vlingo to enable natural language searches across the CG product suite.
This falls under the category of enabling technology that will make mobile local search easier to use and thus more appealing to mainstream mobile users. We’re seeing a lot of this lately, including …

Canadian IYP Yellowpages.ca announced a Facebook application that lets users of the social network tap into local listings and share recommendations with friends. This includes (according to release):

Find, rate and review businesses
Build lists of their favorite restaurants and shops
Share lists of their favorite local businesses with their Facebook network
Reference the business lists and reviews of …

More detail has come out on Seat Pagine Gialle’s proposed sale of its foreign properties. The goal, according to an interview with Reuters, is “to shift its attention back to Italy to mine a boom in Internet use in the country instead of looking for growth abroad. That means units Telegate in Germany, Thomson Directories …

Yellowbook has launched a new microsite to encourage consumers to download and share spots from its new ad campaign. The site also links to Yellowbook’s YouTube channel.
TKG recently posted on the new Yellowbook campaign and brand makeover. We see it as an upgrade of the previous David Carradine campaign, which the publisher contends was quite …

Microsoft will announce a new Live Search product today at Advance08, which gives cash back to users who purchase products through the system.
The aptly named Cashback feature will place dollar sign icons throughout paid search results wherever there are deals available. Users who purchase these items will then have cash amounts transferred to a new …

Google has begun to place geotagged news stories in Google Earth. By mousing over news icons on the map, preview windows appear that show stories from Google News. This adds to the news stories it was already plotting via its partnership with The New York Times.
This is also similar to what MetaCarta does with news stories …

Yell Group announced results today that showed all its operating groups generated top-line growth in its 2007-08 financial year (ended March 31), with almost all the growth coming from the Internet. The company emphasized that it hit its EBITDA guidance for the year.
Yell CFO John Davis announced Yell will cut its dividend in half, calling it …

An innovative bar code technology, QR Codes, first developed in Japan by Denso-Wave has been introduced in Singapore by Singapore Press Holdings. Branded as ZapCodes, the two-dimensional bar codes enable mobile phones equipped with cameras and special software to download information or link users to Web sites for more information. According to the Straits Times: 
“ZapCodes …

Here are last week’s highlights from the TKG blog, in case you missed any posts. Click below to read each post in full.
Of Video Games and Local Search
The latest show of climbing video game sales came in April’s 47 percent year-over-year increase. The $1.23 billion in game & console sales was buoyed by continued success …

Denver-based Local Matters announced a major deal with European Directories “whereby Local Matters will develop and enhance the online white and yellow pages websites across European Directories’ 8-country publishing operations,” according to the press release issued today.
European Directories is a London-based, private-equity-owned publishing holding company with operations in Austria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, …

Thomson Directories owner Seat Pagine Gialle has put the U.K. directory publishing group up for sale, according to an article in the Times Online. 
According to the article: “Thomson, which has been hit by competition from the web and reduced spending by financial clients, is expected to achieve earnings of £25m this year and could …

NearbyNow had a three-pronged announcement today including a $12 million series C round, a distribution partnership with TheFind.com and a new iPhone app. The funding was led by Norwest Ventures and will primarily be used to build infrastructure for traffic growth and expand the mobile search capabilities of its flagship shopping mall product search.
The partnership …

The latest show of climbing video game sales came in April’s 47 percent year-over-year increase. The $1.23 billion in game & console sales was buoyed by continued success of the Nintendo Wii, as well as the release of the hotly anticipated Grand Theft Auto IV.
As this usage continues to climb, there are also developments from …

In its bid to establish itself as a meaningful online company, CBS Interactive has downplayed its traditional strength in local vis-a-vis TV stations, radio stations and outdoor. The company’s just announced acquisition of CNET for $1.8 billion doesn’t necessarily change things. But company officials acknowledge that CNET’s local brands — Urban Baby, a moms site, …

Shopper publications attending the International Classified Media Association meeting in Brussels this week — the vast majority from outside the U.S. — are showing resilience against the challenges of the Internet, and looking at new models to sustain their existing businesses. I was presenting a keynote on the transition to Marketplaces.
Shoppers, of course, are …

Google and Office Depot announced a partnership where Office Depot will offer advice and teach small businesses how to use Google AdWords. Any small business that registers and makes an AdWords purchase on the Office Depot site will receive a $50 advertising bonus. Office Depot will also likely receive a portion of all sales made …

Since the social networking phenomenon began, I have been an advocate of the Yellow Pages developing a platform for niche social networks. Directories cover such a broad array of content that can be related to highly conversational topics, such as travel, music, legal, weddings, new mothers, retirement, interior design and home improvement.
Social networking is …

Two separate but related news items caught my eye today. First, Comcast has acquired social networking technology provider Plaxo in order to integrate social network-like features that let viewers share programming, among other things. Second, Turner Entertainment Networks announced a new plan to index content within television shows so contextually relevant ads can be served …

Internet legend Marc Andreessen waxed positive about social networking and VC opportunities for the next five years during a packed luncheon at the Think Tomorrow — Today conference. Without spending too much time talking about his own social networking venture, Ning, he asserted that the decentralized “many to many” media world we now live in has …

Today, I’m at ThinkPanmure’s Think Tomorrow — Today VC summit in Half Moon Bay, California. As Where 2.0 is happening as we speak on the other side of the hill, some attention to location awareness has been paid here as well.
A panel discussion this morning on the convergence of fixed and mobile telecommunications stressed the …