BIA/Kelsey’s Mobile Market View survey releases today, showing a big rise in smartphone use as well as corresponding mobile Web activity and data consumption.
The annual U.S. consumer survey, currently in Wave III, indicates a surprisingly high jump in smartphone use to nearly a third of adult mobile subscribers (I’ll address in a separate post). Supporting …

The past week has seen a lot of action in the mobile space — Droid release, AdMob acquisition, new BIA/Kelsey mobile data, etc.
On Friday, we sat down to record a podcast to bat around some of these events and what they could mean. This is something we’ve done periodically, but we hope to step it …

Yahoo News is bolstering its local efforts and building “a staff of editors around the US who will improve the local news experience on the frontpage,” according to a Tweet from Anthony Moor, who was recruited from Dallasnews.com, per Lost Remote. The Yahoo News effort is probably at least partially motivated by revamped local efforts …

Outgoing CBS Interactive head Quincy Smith, in a New Teevee Live interview conducted by Om Malik, said he continues to have confidence in the future of TV, which is unlikely to suffer the same disruptive fate that many people are assuming for the music and newspaper industries.
“The future of TV is video, wherever you watch …

Things continue to heat up in the mobile ad network space. One week after the Google/AdMob news broke, top mobile ad network Millennial Media has announced a $16 million funding round led by NEA and existing investors.
The company says it will use the money to accelerate international growth (with emphasis on Europe), beef up engineering …

Here is a recap of posts from last week, in case you missed any. Click below to read each post in full.
New TKR Advisory: ‘The Multiple Layers of the European Directories-Skype Partnership’
We published a new Advisory today in The Kelsey Report that examines the recent deal between European Directories SA (which publishes print and online directories …

AT&T Interactive Chief Product Officer David Yoo resigned last Thursday, Nov. 12. He has been replaced by Spot Runner vet Will Hsu, who had been recruited by Yoo to AT&Ti.
Yoo came to AT&Ti from TellMe after helping sell that company to Microsoft for $850 Million. While at AT&Ti, Yoo led the relaunch of several mobile …

We’ve learned that Yell Group veteran sales, marketing and product development executive Paul Plant has decided to accept a retirement package and will leave the company at year’s end. Plant tells us that he’ll take a short holiday, but almost immediately begin seeking new opportunities in the directories and local search industry.
I’ve known Paul for …

We published a new Advisory today in The Kelsey Report that examines the recent deal between European Directories SA (which publishes print and online directories in eight European markets) and the VoIP giant Skype, with its 480 million worldwide users.
The deal has the potentially to dramatically increase the number of leads EDSA can drive to …

A “hypercamp” dedicated to New Business Models for News was held yesterday in New York City by The CUNY Graduate School of Journalism, led by Jeff Jarvis of BuzzMachine. We weren’t there — wrong coast — and nothing is on the site yet. But the free event had a strong lineup of speakers from all …

Deloitte released a report indicating this holiday season will see a bump in shopping search performed on mobile devices (in addition to social and other online media).
Specifically, 19 percent of survey respondents claim they’ll use mobile search for gift shopping. The breakdown within this sample is 55 percent for store locations, 45 percent for price …

The New York Times’ Bob Tedeschi has a neat column today (thanks for the link, Peter) that speculates what smartphone technology will look like in two years. This comes from his recent conversations with researchers at MIT, SRI, and the iconic Xerox PARC.
It’s a timely piece, amid all the (ill-founded) talk of iPhone killers and …

Twitter is getting closer to the promise of bringing location into the equation as a key component to status updates. Its geolocation support is rolling out, and it recently announced a new local trending topics feature.
The general concept here is that status updates are becoming the standard units of social networking. And inherent drivers of …

Hyperlocal models continue experimenting with ways to make it work on a standalone basis. Networks, e-commerce and other revenue streams have all been tested. Backfence vet Mark Potts has even set up GrowthSpur as a consulting firm and national network specifically to leverage the clout of hyperlocal sites.
A new approach is being tested in Sacramento, …

HelpHive, the new Seattle-based leads provider for service SMBs, had made some changes after running into real PR problems last week from Evan Conklin, an angry (and persistent) plumber. He was irate that the company was taking SMB phone numbers and trademark info, and funneling them through its own system so it could take credit …

Following up on this morning’s “just the facts” post about Google’s AdMob acquisition, here’s a bit more commentary.
First off, this is a big deal — both in size and in what it could mean for the two companies. Google is clearly keen on replicating its online dominance to the mobile world as growing smartphone penetration …

Google announced today that it will acquire mobile ad network AdMob for $750 million in stock. This puts the deal near the top of Google’s deal sizes to date.
AdMob is one of the biggest mobile ad networks and is known best for the display ads it places within iPhone apps. Google meanwhile has clear intentions …

Its not just about advertising anymore. Social media is important too. Accordingly, a number of vendors and network providers have developed tools to help them see where there best placements are and how their reputations are unfolding online, and to simplify and automate their processes for listings and other information.
Today, Oodle has taken several steps …

Ad:Tech/New York, “the event for digital marketing,” ran Nov 4-6 at the Javits Convention Center. This event was predominantly focused on national advertising. There was some attention to international advertising and even less on local advertising. However, many of the trends, technologies, issues and solutions seen on panels and on the exhibit floor clearly are having …

Here is a recap of posts from last week, in case you missed any. Click below to read each post in full.
Angie’s List Adds First ‘National’ Vertical: Classic and Custom Cars
Following the success of eBay Motors with special classic and custom car restoration verticals, other sites have pitched their own tents to get a piece of …