In the spirit of top-ten lists flying at us this time of year, voice search provider Vlingo has revealed the top searches across its mobile apps (via TechCrunch). The list affirms much of what we know about mobile search behavior, including high interest in social networking.
1. YouTube
2. Facebook
3. MySpace
4. Weather
5. Movie Times
6. Twitter
7. Yellow Pages
8. …

Ford has announced that it will include iTunes tagging technology in some new car models starting next year. This will allow users to press a button to indicate interest in a song playing from their HD radio receiver, then download that song from iTunes.
This technology already exists and is sold in some aftermarket HD radio …

Lately, we’ve been hearing more about  shopping search start-up Spreezio, a kind of Priceline for merchandise (TechCrunch profiles it today). In other words, you name the price that represents the threshold at which you’d buy, and then see who bites.
This could come at the right time as we’re seeing more services that give greater control …

ReachLocal’s S1 filing to raise $100 million includes valuable details about the company. With grosses of $146.7 million for the first nine months of 2009, and operations in the U.S., Canada, the U.K. and Australia, the local search and display reseller has become one of the biggest bets in local.
According to the S1, ReachLocal, which …

The year-end money deals continue. Today, The San Jose Business Journal reports that Center’d has raised another $1.875 million on top of the $6.5 million it previously raised.  The two-year-old, mom-friendly local search and events planning site, initially launched as “FatDoor,” is led by former Yahoo Marketplaces head Jennifer Dulski and former Microsoft maps exec …

EBay is expected to dramatically boost its efforts in classifieds in 2010, so we welcome clues into its historical and current thinking into classifieds via eBay vs. Craigslist.  EBay has been seeking redress from Craigslist, which has diluted its 28 percent ownership share to 24 percent in a bid to squeeze out its influence. Craigslist, …

ReachLocal, the fast growing search and display sales channel for small businesses with operations in the U.S., U.K., Canada and Australia, has filed with the SEC to raise $100 million in an IPO. The company recently reported that it has 500 + salespeople and 300 staffers.
Reach earned $146.7 million in revenues in 2008, up from …

Michael Arrington is reporting that Google’s rumored Yelp acquisition has fallen through in late stages. More details will likely emerge over time.

Rumors continue throughout the morning after last night’s TechCrunch post that Google is in talks to buy Yelp for half a billion dollars. The New York Times has more details and is practically “calling” the deal in the way of election night news desks.
If true, this will be a big deal for the local space, …

The battle to win a digital slice of the $150 billion auto repair marketplace heated up a little today as RepairPal announced a new $4 million round, adding to $3 million it previously raised. The round was led by Tugboat Ventures and includes several individual investors.
RepairPal focuses on providing leads to repair shops and expert …

New Zealand’s Yellow Pages Group posted a net loss after tax of NZ$338 million for the financial year ended June 30, but much of the loss resulted from one-time items. The company actually managed to grow revenues 1.4 percent to NZ$297 million, with print dropping 1.6 percent (a modest decline to say the least compared …

Verticals that can engage certain demographics on a socio/geo basis and drive loyalty and conversion are the basis of our Marketplaces research program.  A new one that has caught our eye is WineTwits from HappyHours.com founder Steve Gilberg.  Three years ago, HappyHours and Lawn and Garden Search were among the first verticals that made us …

Call measurement firm Telmetrics has issued an announcement detailing its predictions for how pay per call will evolve in 2010. We think it’s a pretty good list. Here is our summation of what they say, with some commentary of our own. Here is the original document.
Agencies will embrace PPC. Telmetrics expects advertisers to pressure ad …

Mobile bar code scanning app Red Laser has reached the elusive feat of being among the iPhone’s top five paid apps for three consecutive months (via MobileCrunch). Oh yeah, and the $1.99 app has brought in $1 million in subscription revenues.
This tells us a few things. 1. It’s still possible to have an app succeed …

Millennial Media, in the spirit of its monthly SMART reports, is one of the first to join the requisite torrent of year-end predictions.
According to the mobile ad network, we’ll see over the next year:
1. The U.S. Mobile Web Will Reach Nearly 100M Unique Users Per Month
2. Advertisers Will Invest Significantly in …

During an online mapping panel at our Interactive Local Media conference last week, we discussed how feature rollouts have slowed from their frenetic pace of a few years ago.
This includes street-level imagery, satellite, multi-point directions and a number of other bells and whistles that were first incited by Google’s 2005 acquisition of Keyhole. More recently, …

Facing up to the reality of a real estate market in which many houses for sale end up becoming “shadow” rentals, Zillow has added rental listings and information to its real estate services. At the same time, Zillow is attaching a $9.95 premium for listings to be posted for six months, which represents the first …

Last week during the Interactive Local Media conference, search marketing company Kenshoo launched a new division to tackle the challenging but opportunistic area of local. I spent some time talking with division head Sivan Metzger both on and off the stage.
For one thing, Metzger acknowledges that the company’s move into local is telling of the …

This has been the year for new sites that combine service directories and social features such as ratings and reviews.  Earlier this year, we saw sites such as RedBeacon, HelpHive and others launch. Depending on definitions, earlier entrants include Citysearch, Yelp.com, Tree.com’s Done Right, FixR , LocalPrice, Insider Pages and Center’d.
Behind their fancy Web 2.0 …

New York Magazine, whose online effort is run by longtime MSNBC.com exec Michael Silberman, has emerged as one of the most ambitious city magazine efforts on the Web, competing directly against city guides and other local services. Yesterday, the site, which leverages a sales force of 100, announced a partnership with Clickable to power its …