Local SEO guru Andrew Shotland just alerted me to the fact that Google is now serving the local “10 pack” in searches that don’t include geographic modifiers (original discovery by Google Maps expert Mike Blumenthal).

For those unfamiliar, the 10 pack is the block of 10 local results that occupies the top results in searches where Google has a high degree of confidence in local intent. Until today, that confidence was based on explicit geographic modifiers (i.e., Pizza, San Francisco). It has now been broadened to include search terms that have more implied local intent.

I imagine Google is algorithmically deriving levels of confidence based on different categories or terms where there is higher likelihood of local conversions (i.e., plumber, pizza, flat screen television). Under the previous method, the 10 pack was limited to the amount of searches that included geographic modifiers (less than 10 percent of overall searches). Now its impact will be felt much wider.

This has rather large implications for anyone in the local search space that depends on traffic from Google, including vertical search plays, city guides, IYPs, etc. When the 10 pack first came out about a year ago, many such entities felt the pinch because they were essentially pushed down (or off) the first page of listings. That effect will be greater going forward.

This is something we’ve seen coming, but we haven’t been quite sure what form it would take. The premise was that the 10 pack would get served with greater frequency as:

1. Users get more sophisticated by knowing to include geographic modifiers with local queries. This will happen through positive reinforcement of search behavior and increasing volumes of local content online.

2. Google gets better at recognizing local intent in the many places it occurs outside the limited use of geographic modifiers.

Today’s development falls into the second bucket. But what this really shows is Google’s affirmation of what we’ve been saying for years: Lots of searches have varying degrees of local intent, though they may be at various stages of the typical purchase funnel. Locally relevant content should be much more saturated than it currently is if it’s to truly match user intent.

This is a big development, the real impact of which will be shown in the coming weeks. I’ll continue to examine what it means and huddle with my SEO friendlies (Shotland et al). More to come.

Idearc announced it has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in Texas, a move that it signaled in its year-end 2008 earnings announcement, when it indicated some form of bankruptcy filing was likely if not inevitable.

Here is how Idearc describes the process it will go through:

Idearc also announced that it has reached an agreement in principle with the agent bank and a steering group of its secured lenders on certain critical elements of a plan of reorganization. The Company expects to be able to file a plan of reorganization in approximately 30 days, and if implemented as proposed, this plan will enable Idearc to significantly reduce its outstanding debt to a more suitable level upon emergence from the legal proceedings.

Idearc carries more than US$9 billion in debt, and clearing as much as possible of that debt off its balance sheet is key to the company’s survival.  

Here is Idearc CEO Scott Klein’s statement from the release:

“Today we take an important step forward as we continue to transform Idearc. Essentially we have a company with good potential being held back by a terminally ill balance sheet. We are not only open for business and serving our clients as usual, we are also continuing our focus on transforming Idearc for the future based on a bold strategy, including all of the new programs launched earlier this month.

“The reorganization process will enable Idearc to quickly finalize and implement a debt restructuring plan that will strengthen our financial condition and position us to compete more effectively in a challenging and rapidly evolving economic environment,” Klein said. “One of our most important priorities is to put in place an appropriate capital structure to support our strategic business plans and objectives. A new capital structure that can give all of our partners the confidence they need in us to be there for them in the years ahead provides us with the greatest chance for success.”

Idearc is not alone among media companies following this path today. One of my hometown newspapers, the Chicago Sun Times, filed for bankruptcy today as well, making Chicago a two bankrupt newspaper town.        

MySpace and Citysearch today confirmed the launch of MySpace Local, a new local city guide using functionality and feeds from Citysearch, including its taxonomy of categorization, geography structure, search functionality and content. A beta version of the site launches this week, with a general U.S. launch next month. It will be available on the Web and on MySpace mobile products.

The two companies will share ad revenues, but Citysearch CEO Jay Herratti says this deal is more important than that. “We are going to live wherever consumers want to be,” he told us. “The strategy is to make Citysearch an open platform.”

Herratti notes with pride that MySpace Local was “created almost overnight. … It is a complete city guide that rivals Citysearch” in quality. But he insists that MySpace Local won’t be cannibalizing Citysearch’s audience.

There is no cannibalism “whatsoever,” says Herratti. “Users come to the sites with different mind-sets.” While Citysearch and Insider Pages claim 30 million unique visitors a month between them, and MySpace has “millions and millions of users,” Citysearch’s audience comes to the site with “specific local intent.” MySpace’s users, on the other hand, are more likely to use the site for discovery.

While MySpace is using many of Citysearch’s features, it won’t be relying on Citysearch’s reviews. MySpace has its own reviews and review functionality, says Herratti. But at some point, Citysearch might bring in those reviews with MySpace’s brand on them.

As for advertisers, Citysearch’s sales department is managing MySpace Local as a special program. “The offering is free [to businesses], but there will be two layers of premium services available,” notes Herratti.

“The first layer is an offering that will add special features on the page, and increase connections to consumers with merchant video” and other services. The second layer is to extend reach within and beyond MySpace. “We are giving merchants exposure across MySpace and across the Web,” he says.

For Citysearch, which recently announced its open platform program as part of its five-year “Citysearch 3G” initiative, the signing of MySpace is something of a coup. While Citysearch already works with Facebook Connect, where users can enhance their Citysearch experience among their Facebook friends, the MySpace deal goes further by bringing content directly onto MySpace for everyone to see and use.

For MySpace, the launch of MySpace Local may be seen as the third leg of an effort to reach out to local advertisers. In October, it launched MyAds, a self-serve SMB ad platform for SMBs, and it has also signed up to take part in Oodle’s classified platform.

The companies are both based in Los Angeles and MySpace President of Sales and Advertising Jeff Berman and Herratti both keynoted at Kelsey’s Marketplaces 2009 conference two weeks ago.

On a recent visit to Stockholm, we sat down with Eniro President and CEO Jesper Karrbrink, who is managing Eniro through a strategic shift described in a presentation late last year as moving “from print dependence to online opportunity.” In a videotaped interview, Karrbrink insisted that Eniro’s product is its content. Print directories, the Internet, mobile phones and so on are merely “distribution formats” in his view. “This is a database company,” he said. Karrbrink compared directories to the music industry, which he said would be out of business had it determined its business was manufacturing records rather than distributing music.

The interview covered a wide range of issues, including:

• Eniro’s relationship with Google. He jokingly describes it as “love-hate.” He believes the key is for Eniro to provide search results on its eniro.se, .no, .dk, etc.,  platform that are more relevant to Nordic consumers than to compete in general search. “From an end user standpoint, they will always be competition. There is room for a couple of search engines out there.”
• Reselling competitors’ traffic. He didn’t rule out Eniro launching an SEM product but suggested it was not high on the company’s priority list. “We have discussed that, and we think we have a pretty good offering ourselves. And there is some risk to [selling others' traffic].”
• Sales channel strategies. He suggested that Eniro is reconsidering its current separate print and online sales approach. Going back to a single channel would be more cost efficient and more consistent with Karrbrink’s one product, multiple distribution channels philosophy. He says the company will do what makes the most sense. “This is not a religion.”

A more detailed write-up with more video excerpts will soon be delivered to clients of The Kelsey Report.

The local appointment space has a new entrant in the form of Austin-based HourVille. The start-up, created by several friends from UT’s business school, premiered at SXSW. It lets users book anything by the hour, including services, rentals, classes and places.

Users may use the service to “search locally,” “book and pay,” check out “profiles, reviews and ratings,” or “promote yourself.” One of the site’s most attractive features is a set of “Book Me” buttons that can be added to any Web site.

Mostly, it is a software company. HourVille’s “seller scheduler” software allows for both Web-based and manual entries; enables “auction” or “buy-now” pricing; and notifies businesses of potential reservations via their choice of phone messaging, or instant messaging. Since many sole proprietors sell different types of services (i.e., bartending and copyrighting), the scheduler can be set up with multiple services with different descriptions, prices and schedules.

While the service is free to both buyers and sellers, there is likely to be contextual advertising. Moreover, some value-added services can be applied, such as SEM. Fees may also be applied for transactions. Currently, buyers can prepay a portion of their reservations via PayPal.

To us, the hours theme may be a good calling card. Ultimately, it is a weird cut of the action in the services space. I don’t know that yoga classes should be listed side by side with a landscaper (or U-Haul truck rental). But the company is likely not to be doctrinaire about it.

In the meantime, it seems HourVille is set to happily collide on a course already set by start-up reservation companies such as GenBook and Booking Angel, as well as TeachStreet, the Seattle-based classes company that is moving up the value chain to include “local experts.”

As rumors over the past week have indicated, Skype’s iPhone app will launch tomorrow and will be available in the app store.

The application will allow users to operate the Skype client from their iPhones. Like Skype’s online service, this will involve free calls to other Skype users and cheap calls (requiring Skype Premium or pay as you go plan) to landline and mobile phones.

This is something in clear and direct conflict with the device’s own core use — making calls. To steer clear of an outright conflict with AT&T’s network, which could have prevented app store approval, the client will only work when connected to a Wi-Fi network.

Even still, the ability to make free and cheap domestic and international calls without eating up minutes is a valuable proposition. Though it’s unlikely that it will disintermediate AT&T service plans (required to activate non-jailbroken iPhones), it could cut into revenue derived from additional fees such as international calling, roaming, overages, etc.

The interesting part is the integration with a device that’s, after all, designed to make calls. Skype’s adoption on the desktop by comparison has been held back by the need to buy and plug in additional hardware (headset or Skype phone). The PC as an instrument to make calls, has been a conceptual leap that has been lost on more “mainstream” users — at least in the U.S.

Integration to mobile makes a lot of sense and will be welcomed by Skype’s loyal user base. It could also help the company tap into new sets of users that are attracted to the idea of cheap international mobile calls. TruPhone is an existing app that has the same idea, but doesn’t have Skype’s brand equity or its 300 million global subscribers.

Skype is trying in lots of ways to redefine itself and its performance as a strategic investment for parent eBay. We’ve been in discussions with the company about some interesting directions to be a better search tool, in addition to a communications tool. At the local level, the two can go hand in hand. More on that soon.

Techcrunch has a guest post today from Google VP of engineering for mobile Vic Gundotra, which pinpoints the factors that will drive the growth of the mobile Web.

Among them are the easy-to-use mobile browsers (i.e., iPhone and Android-based devices), and the introduction/growth of application marketplaces. The arguments aren’t anything ground breaking but are supportive of many claims we’ve made here, and provide lots of good Google data (nearly 50 percent of Google mobile searches happen on iPhones).

It’s a good snapshot of where we are now and where we’re headed in mobile search.

One of the great mysteries is what Wal-Mart is really doing with classifieds. Last June, it signed up to use the Oodle platform, but not much has been heard from it since.

In this week’s Ad Age, Wal-Mart’s Duncan Dreschel sheds a little light, noting that the company seeks to simultaneously extend the brand, drive traffic to the site and help customers. “We see part of our role as connecting customers to help each other. It also allows us to provide a more complete offering.

“We’re looking at lots of things to make classifieds evolve,” he added. Already, he noted, some people close deals struck on the Web site in the parking lot of their nearest store.

Here is a recap of posts from last week, in case you missed any. Click below to read each post in full.

The Knot Launches Local Wedding Sites

The Knot has launched 75 local URL sites as well as several niche sites, including Chinese weddings, gay wedding, beach weddings and destination weddings. More than 200 local and niche sites are planned by the end of 2009, according to coverage in The Wall Street Journal. (read more…)

How Can Google Improve? Local Execs Comment

We all live in Google’s world now. Nobody would dispute that there are many positives associated with that. But how do industry practitioners really feel about it?. Can it be improved? We asked three executives who cover different parts of the local ecosystem, promising them anonymity. (read more…)

Metro Directories to Fold; Yellowbook to Honor Contracts

The independent Atlanta-based Yellow Pages publisher Metro Directories will go out of business this year, and its rival Yellowbook has agreed to honor the contracts of Metro advertisers for books yet to be published this year. (read more…)

ShopSavvy Localizes Mobile Shopping, Care of Krillion

Krillion announced today that it will power product inventory search on the ShopSavvy application for Google Android based phones. This app gets high marks on the cool factor. Produced by Big In Japan, ShopSavvy has been a popular free Android application (400,000 users) that lets users scan bar codes to see what deals are available. The scanned data then feeds into ShopSavvy’s database to reveal product info for same or similar products. (read more…)

A Conversation With Dex: More on the New Mobile App

Following yesterday’s preview of Dex’s new line of mobile search products, I had the chance to talk to the company today about the ins and outs. First, the product line consists of an SMS search tool, a mobile Web site, a smartphone java application, and an iPhone app. The idea, as it’s been executed by many directory publishers, is to reach the greatest portion of the market possible. (read more…)

Microsoft Turns Your Car Into a Mobile Device

A great deal has already been written about the work Microsoft is doing with Ford to make the car itself a more powerful mobile device. I just came across an interesting video that shows some of these features in action. Ford’s head of Information Systems, Gary Jablonski, walks through some of the features of the Sync product, built into some Ford models. It lets users listen to music and send and receive calls and texts while driving. Lots more mobile local search features can be envisioned, based on these. (read more…)

Dealix Launches New Leads Platform

Online leads for cars are broken. The vast majority of auto shoppers won’t even fill out a request for bid because they think they’ll get inaccurate, incomplete and tardy information from the dealer. But that doesn’t stop vendors from working on better solutions. Today, Cobalt’s Dealix division rolled out a new leads platform that it claims will transfer leads to dealers almost instantaneously, while “identifying, processing, and delivering higher quality leads.” (read more…)

Global Smartphone OS Shares: What Do They Tell Us?

AdMob has supplied a steady stream of monthly reports that extrapolate mobile market data from its ad network. Its latest report (February) has a few interesting points about mobile Web traffic shares among smartphone operating systems in the U.S. and globally. The iPhone holds the lion’s share (and fastest growing share) of mobile Web traffic. In the U.S., this amounts to about 50 percent, up from 10 percent in August 2008. (read more…)

Get a Fwix on Your Location

Fwix, a social news site that launched last summer, has just launched a local search iPhone app (via TechCrunch). It will be an all-in-one local app that aggregates latest news, blog posts, Yelp reviews, crime reports and other info that can be pre-filtered by users’ preferences. The user interface will be based on a map (including a heat map of activity) as well as a list view that offers the “news feed” format that has been popularized by social networks such as Facebook. (read more…)

The Importance of the Reader vs. the Writer

When I went to work in the new Information Services Division of Dow Jones in 1980, I was taken on a tour of the newsroom including the area where the news wires spit out a continuous flow of information called the broad tape. I remember being told that the first responsibility a reporter had was to get information out to broad tape subscribers, regardless of the topic, because every piece of news and information had value to someone. (read more…)

The Knot has launched 75 local URL sites as well as several niche sites, including Chinese weddings, gay wedding, beach weddings and destination weddings. More than 200 local and niche sites are planned by the end of 2009, according to coverage in The Wall Street Journal.

Much of the local sites content is repurposed and put on a template. The New York-based public company, which also publishes 17 regional magazines, has long had local city-by-city guides in the same markets. It has been aggressively verticalizing in the past year, acquiring such life-stage-oriented sites as Weddingbook by WedSnap, a Facebook app; breastfeeding.com; and TheBump, a local pregnancy guide.

The local sites feature local directories for wedding categories such as photographers, florists, DJs, wedding dresses, wedding cakes and reception locations. It also has a well used message board (at least in some of the more popular markets).

A quick look at the popular San Diego board shows that it has valuable tips from other readers, such as whether specific vendors provide free chair covers (sometimes), and logistical issues for getting back and forth between a wedding site and hotel.