Here is a collection of newsworthy Yellow Pages and directional media items that I’ve noted over the past week or so.
Got this press release in my inbox from Yell Group this morning, showing some creativity in linking the print directory with the mobile Web:
INTERACTIVE SMART CODES TRIALLED ON YELLOW PAGES FRONT COVER
In a UK directory …

IBegin has been trying to add its own Web 2.0 sensibility to the listings business, offering free basic directories of businesses, and customization services on an upgrade basis. It now has 150 businesses and organizations subscribing, including schools, local and state government, city services, chambers of commerce, professional associations, hotels, golf courses, newspapers, TV stations …

TKG offices are closed tomorrow for the Thanksgiving holiday and blog posting will be light over the next few days. For our U.S. readers or expats celebrating Thanksgiving, have a fun and restful holiday.

Mashable is holding its second annual Open Web Awards and voting is open until Dec. 15. You can vote for one company in each of the 26 categories, such as social networking, photo sharing, search & social search, etc. (full list here).
But my biggest question is, where’s local? Among 26 categories, there is no local …

Following the roundup of blog coverage of ILM:08, you can view all the Twitter comments that are tagged and aggregated here. There was lots of good chatter and some good gems scattered throughout the 100+ tweets from the event.
Thanks to everyone who attended and participated in the conversation. If you haven’t already, you can follow …

I noticed today when watching a YouTube video that the viewing window has switched to a 16:9 aspect ratio. For videos in 4:3 ratio already on YouTube, they simply sit in the middle of the widescreen window (see example below).
This is a logical move for YouTube as it tries to monetize its content. In other …

Our friend Chip Perry, CEO of AutoTrader.com, was on Fox News yesterday, making a case for an auto industry (conditional) bailout to Neil Cavuto.
The argument is that a strategic taxpayer investment that comes with performance-based conditions could force the industry into being more efficient. On the marketing side, for example, Perry pointed out how the …

One of the prevalent themes at last week’s ILM:08 conference was how the economic environment is forcing businesses of all sizes to pay closer attention to their advertising ROI. With that will come an acceleration of the existing trend toward more measurable online media.
Google TV is one place that could benefit from this, as television …

The following post was contributed by TKG associate Mark Temple, who attended last week’s Yellow Pages Today event in Zurich, Switzerland. 
The sixth annual Yellow Pages Today Conference assembled experts from the industry to give their specialist opinions around the theme of this year’s conference, “The Future of the Printed Directory.” 
Margit Kaluza-Baumruker, the marketing director from …

Last night, I finally got around to downloading the newest iPhone firmware (v2.2) that was released Friday. It includes enhancements to browsing in Safari, Podcast integration, the option to deactivate typing auto correct (thank you!) and Google Street View.
The latter stands out among all the new features and is being touted as the new release’s …

In case you missed any posts from last week’s blog coverage of ILM:08, they are all tagged and aggregated here.

Sometimes even the most clever advertising for Yellow Pages has a “been there, done that” quality to it. Take a funny situation, add a clever conclusion involving a play on words related to a Yellow Pages heading and, bam, you’ve got a campaign. Some of these feel tired, and others not so much because of …

Much of the discussion on this morning’s ILM:08 panel titled “Localizing the Ad Nets: Display Channels” revolved around discussion of what was to become of the display ad network environment in 2009. Panelists Shawn Riegsecker (CEO of Centro) and Russ Fradin (CEO of Adify) had differing views on this area. Fradin expects the display market to …

In 1996, one of our keynote speakers at a Kelsey conference was Greg Riker, who was vice president of technology at Microsoft and responsible for “wearable technologies.” A lot of what he did sounded like science fiction, but what he was testing has now become part of our daily lives.
In that vein, every year …

The phone is quickly advancing as a means of pushing out ad-sponsored content that mimics some of the popular mobile advertising features.
Greg Webster of VoodooVox, at ILM:08, debuted some of the new features of the company’s In-Call Media group, demonstrating additional marketing opportunities via on-hold messages, “pre-call” messages when using calling cards, and distribution over …

This isn’t a brand-new item but is something I just noticed: Yellowbook.com now offers the ability for users to rate businesses and read the reviews of others.
The reason this is notable is that the IYP for a while was a holdout in not doing this, with the assertion that there wasn’t enough demand among its …

The partnership between Yahoo and the Newspaper Consortium is an ambitious effort to bridge the gap between the online and print worlds. The two leaders of this partnership presented at the Interactive Local Media 2008 conference this morning, in a panel moderated by Peter Krasilovsky.
The panelists were Lem Lloyd, VP Newspaper Consortium at Yahoo, and …

The “New Takes on Local Audience Targeting” panel this morning at Interactive Local Media 2008 demonstrated how the technology for identifying and targeting audience segments is growing by leaps and bounds.
Moderator Bobbi Loy-Luster kicked off the session by introducing comScore’s Brian Jurutka, vice president of marketing solutions at comScore (who we congratulate on his recent …

The Google personalized search developments that we wrote about in July have been launched.

Two real success stories in the home services category shared the stage this afternoon on the “Home Services Visionaries” panel, offering two different perspectives on how to make money from creating a local home services marketplace, built on a foundation of credible consumer reviews.
Angie Hicks, CMO and cofounder of Angie’s List, described how she has …