Here are the highlights from the TKG blog this week, in case you missed any posts. Click below to read each post in full.

Regulators Approve Netherlands Directory Consolidation

The Dutch competition authorities today approved the planned merger between the Netherlands operations of Truvo (Gouden Gids) and European Directories (DeTelefoongids). This approval clears the way for the merger to move ahead. (read more…)

Canada’s YPG now Coast to Coast

With the recent acquisition of Get It Pages in Saskatchewan, Yellow Pages Group in Canada has now consolidated a national footprint in Canada. According to the New Brunswick Business Journal, Get It Pages publishes directories in the regions of Battleford, Prince Albert, Yorkton and Estevan. YPG will integrate these editions into its operations, and they will carry the Yellow Pages brand. (read more…)

Recommended Reading: The ‘Semantics’ of Local Search

Localeze biz dev head Gib Olander has a good piece in MediaPost in which he argues the need to refine local search marketing campaigns based on changing search behavior. In other words, the way people search and the terms they use need to be better recognized. (read more…)

J.D. Power: Auto Dealers, Dissatisfied, Ramp Up on Leads

Auto dealers have ramped up their use of online lead providers, according to a new dealer satisfaction study by J.D. Power, which was conducted in May and June with 4,141 respondents. They’ve gone from an average of 5.6 in 2006 to 6.8 in 2008. In addition, more than half the dealers in the study said they subscribe to a lead notification program, which alerts them to an incoming lead via cellphone voice or text messages. (read more…)

iPhone 3G Sales Surpass 2G: That Was Quick

Just seven weeks after its introduction, the iPhone 3G will sell 7 million units. It took the first generation iPhone more than a year to reach that mark, and 3G models now surpass 2G model sales. As we keep saying, the iPhone still only represents less than 1 percent of the U.S. cellphone market (in units sold), but it is growing quickly. Apple is on pace to sell 40 million devices in the next year, and about 800,000 iPhones are being manufactured per day by Apple’s OEM partner Foxconn. (read more…)

DriverSide Tunes Up Local Mechanic Search via fairBenjamin

Newly launched automotive portal DriverSide announced today that it will acquire auto mechanic search site fairBenjamin. The acquisition is hoped to improve DriverSide’s repair service data and estimates for common repairs, and possibly add new dimensions to its service based on fairBenjamin’s service model. This mostly involves anonymously shopping out repair jobs to mechanics who can then connect with car owners. (read more…)

YPG-NZ Brings Home a Winner

As an innovative way of promoting its Yellow Pages and Yellow Frontdoor, its magazine-styled directory focused on home improvement and decorating, Yellow Pages Group New Zealand is now the main sponsor of New Zealand’s largest home show as reported by New Zealand’s Thread Magazine. Within the environment of a slowing real estate market and the focus on green building and renovation, YPG-NZ’s decision to sponsor this event is well timed. (read more…)

U.K. Broadcaster Teams With Oodle, Mobiya for Text Classifieds

Bauer, a U.K. media company, is utilizing a classified ad platform in which users can text in their ads and send MMS photos. The platform is being used by Magic 105.4 and Magic Digital. It is a partnership of Mobiya, which processes the ads, and Oodle, which adds the ads to its broad base of classified listings and also white labels the Magic Local service on the Web. The service is free to users except for any fees associated with texting. (read more…)

LA Times Unit Seeks Share of Real Estate Transactions

Real estate advertising revenues will give way to transaction revenues, at least in SoCal, as the Los Angeles Times Media Group teams with several partners to launch Zetabid, a new site that will display and auction foreclosed homes and other properties. The other partners are London-based GoIndustry-DoveBid, an auction specialist, and CataList Homes of Hermosa Beach, a real estate brokerage. (read more…)

Vertical Slowdown? Teresa Lawlor Discusses Challenges

The development of verticals is an obvious growth strategy for newspapers, Yellow Pages, search engines and as standalones. The Kelsey Group projects that verticals and classifieds will make up 25 percent of interactive local revenues by 2012. But nothing happens overnight. And at this point, still early in the game, there have been some initial disappointments with vertical results. (read more…)

The Dutch competition authorities today approved the planned merger between the Netherlands operations of Truvo (Gouden Gids) and European Directories (DeTelefoongids). This approval clears the way for the merger to move ahead.

According to an announcement from Howrey LLP, the firm that represented Truvo in the deal, the regulators were initially wary of the deal, based on the view that allowing two direct competitors to merge reduced competition, which was bad for consumers and advertisers.

However, the commission was apparently swayed by evidence that the two publishers were less competitive than they appeared.

” Despite the apparent similarity between the Gouden Gids and De Telefoongids directories, the NMa found that they do not exert significant competitive pressure on one another. Market evidence, including surveys and past customer behaviour, clearly shows that very few advertisers switch between the two directories (e.g. in response to a price increase). They rather switch to online media or even stop advertising in directories altogether without switching to an alternative. Therefore, even if in terms of product characteristics, Gouden Gids and De Telefoongids look similar, they are not each other’s prime competitors.”

The regulators also recognized the significance of online advertising in deciding whether to approve the deal.

“Whilst it finds that not all businesses currently see online platforms as an alternative to directories, it notes that users are switching away from traditional directories to online search in significant numbers. The NMa finds that this must in time influence where businesses spend their advertising budgets, and that this will constrain the merged entity post-merger – another implication of the two-sidedness of the market.”

By “two-sidedness” the regulators meant the virtuous circle of usage driving content and content driving usage. The regulators seemed to conclude that Truvo and European Directories would encounter significant challenges with migration going forward and would handle those challenges more effectively as one company rather than two.

With the recent acquisition of Get It Pages in Saskatchewan, Yellow Pages Group in Canada has now consolidated a national footprint in Canada. According to the New Brunswick Business Journal, Get It Pages publishes directories in the regions of Battleford, Prince Albert, Yorkton and Estevan. YPG will integrate these editions into its operations, and they will carry the Yellow Pages brand. 

Marc Tellier, YPG’s president and CEO, said: “Saskatchewan represents the final step in the consolidation of our national directories platform and this announcement represents a significant strategic move for us and for consumers and businesses in the province. In addition to providing relevant local content to consumers in the province, Saskatchewan businesses will benefit from access to a truly national marketplace, now both print and online, something which we can offer with unparalleled reach.” 

While many directory publishers are re-examining their commitment to print directories, YPG remains committed to the print product and continues to see growing revenues (up 1 percent). Tellier will be a keynote speaker at The Kelsey Group’s upcoming Directional Media Strategies conference, Sept. 15-17 in Atlanta, Georgia. Part of his presentation will detail his long-range view of the print product, which may counter common perceptions currently overshadowing the industry.    

Localeze biz dev head Gib Olander has a good piece in MediaPost in which he argues the need to refine local search marketing campaigns based on changing search behavior. In other words, the way people search and the terms they use need to be better recognized.

After providing some data that quantify the local search opportunity (i.e., 25 percent of searches have local intent), he argues that the opportunity is not being met with listing comprehensiveness (we hear you). A contrast to the category-based taxonomy of Yellow Pages is also made in pointing out that users’ search behavior has evolved.

Yellow Pages lookups (both online and print), in other words, have traditionally been headings driven (i.e., “plumber”), whereas the free-form search use case has conditioned searchers to be more specific (i.e., “leaky faucet”).

What does this mean for local advertisers?

if a business is identifiable in local search engines through only its name or category, it is not going to be found by the things that make it truly unique. In order to appear in organic local search engine results (the storefront’s virtual window), businesses must optimize for local search engines differently, focusing not just on their name brand, but instead on all the brands they carry, as well as all their services offered and much more.

A parallel concept is the granularity with which searchers are typing in geographic modifiers: They often go deeper than city- or ZIP-level terms. Urban Mapping bases much of its data generation on this premise, including its “geo mods,” which provide local advertisers with better geographic keywords to use in their search marketing campaigns.

Overall, the theme is clear: Table stakes in local search marketing (all search marketing for that matter) include providing comprehensive business information and choosing keywords that are both germane to your business and used with the greatest frequency by searchers. Successful search marketing, therefore, must turn the process around and act according to the evolving ways that users search for things.

This has reached the product level. And thanks to companies like Krillion and NearbyNow, it will soon go even further in reaching the level of real-time product availability. Users will be conditioned by positive reinforcement of these product searches, adoption will grow (especially this holiday season), and around and around we go.

In what amounts to another vote of confidence from business and financial communities for self-serve video ad production, StudioNow has received $2.38 million in private equity. Funding came from existing investor Claritas Capital plus Clayton Associates. This adds to the $1.68 million it received last June, bringing its Series A round to a total of $4.1 million.

The company was founded in January ‘07 as a self-serve video production product that also has a social element of connecting businesses with video professionals. In that way it has elements of Mixpo, AdFare and WellcomeMat — all companies we’ve profiled recently.

Like these companies, StudioNow has realized the opportunity in SMB-produced video that is targeted locally. This was most recently shown through its channel partnership with Clear Channel, which equips the radio giant with a video ad production tool to resell to its base of local advertisers.

I’m scheduled to talk to StudioNow execs tomorrow about the funding, the company’s general model and its intended directions. Stay tuned.

In addition to our own coverage last week, here are a few good selections from others reporting on the TKG local sessions, in case you weren’t able to be there:

Aim Clear Blog

Matt McGee

Search Engine Roundtable (here and here)

Comic strips such as Popeye, Terry and the Pirates, and Blondie marked the rise of the newspaper as entertainment in the early part of the 20th century, and the top comic strip artists prospered greatly, some earning the equivalent of $1.8 million a year. But the success of Peanuts and its characters was in a class by itself.

At Peanuts’ peak in 1969, it was syndicated by United Features to 2,000 newspapers. More importantly, it leveraged its presence to springboard additional channels for its characters in TV, amusement parks, ice shows, bedsheets and even the Apollo space program (Apollo 10 was dubbed “Snoopy 1″), while serving as corporate icons for Ford, MetLife and Dolly Madison baked goods.

“Schulz and Peanuts” author David Michaelis notes that the newspapers initially resisted the extensions, believing they owned Peanuts (they didn’t), and not realizing that the greater exposure only reinforced their own readership. This incredibly well-researched “insider’s” biography of Peanuts creator Charles Schulz is a great and thoughtful read that is illustrated by hundreds of panels from Peanuts — Schulz’s life was out there for all to see. It doubles as one of the best business histories I’ve read.

Auto dealers have ramped up their use of online lead providers, according to a new dealer satisfaction study by J.D. Power, which was conducted in May and June with 4,141 respondents. They’ve gone from an average of 5.6 in 2006 to 6.8 in 2008. In addition, more than half the dealers in the study said they subscribe to a lead notification program, which alerts them to an incoming lead via cellphone voice or text messages.

The jump in used car lead services suggests an underlying dissatisfaction with the quality and quantity of leads, says J.D. Power. On a scale of 1 to 1,000, dealer satisfaction with leads is down to 581 from 613 in 2007.

Third-party auto sites such as Cars.com are relying more on advertising. They are deemphasizing leads in favor of providing richer information that attracts car buyers. Their feeling is that a limited number of consumers are willing to fill out lead cards, and that many leads are sold over and over again and become stale. Many third-party sites, however, say their value is still judged by the number of leads they produce.

Just seven weeks after its introduction, the iPhone 3G will sell 7 million units. It took the first generation iPhone more than a year to reach that mark, and 3G models now surpass 2G model sales.

As we keep saying, the iPhone still only represents less than 1 percent of the U.S. cellphone market (in units sold), but it is growing quickly. Apple is on pace to sell 40 million devices in the next year, and about 800,000 iPhones are being manufactured per day by Apple’s OEM partner Foxconn.

With the lowered price and mass market appeal of the device, we’ll see this adoption grow quickly in a way that could mirror that of the iPod. Michael Arrington meanwhile poses a good question: “At what point is it no longer considered a niche device in the cellphone world?”

The early movers in the AppStore will be well positioned to capture usage, search volume and exposure, and traffic to their online brands. UrbanSpoon is an example of this, having been essentially put on the map for lots of users through its iPhone app and its clever association with the Apple/iPhone halo effect.

Meanwhile, the AppStore is pulling in about $1 million per day. This is primarily from downloads of paid apps though the majority of overall downloads are free. Most of the local search apps (example) are in the free category, with the thought that — like online local search — the payoff will come after considerable usage makes ad support more attractive.

This thought was echoed by each of the iPhone app developers that sat on TKG’s mobile local search panel at SES last week (Yelp, UrbanSpoon, TheFind, NearbyNow). More also from our previous post and recent iPhone report (sub req.). And much more iPhone coverage to come.

Newly launched automotive portal DriverSide announced today that it will acquire auto mechanic search site fairBenjamin.

The acquisition is hoped to improve DriverSide’s repair service data and estimates for common repairs, and possibly add new dimensions to its service based on fairBenjamin’s service model. This mostly involves anonymously shopping out repair jobs to mechanics who can then connect with car owners.

Like RepairPal, DriverSide offers cost estimates for repairs and maintenance based on a database of information on repair rates for various cars and other regional variables that affect costs, such as labor.

Other services include the ability to create an account and a personal portal for all things that have to do with your car, such as service records, value estimator, recall notices, service reminders, parts and accessories search, mechanic reviews, etc. You can even buy Terrapass carbon credits on the site.

DriverSide currently monetizes with classified ads from partner sites but will likely integrate other types of advertising in the future, including cost-per-action or transactional-style functionality around appointment scheduling. We could see the same from RepairPal as both sites evolve and gain more consumer traction.

You can read more background in our past interviews with both RepairPal and DriverSide.