After more than a year of speculation about a “GPhone,” the Google-powered G1 phone was unveiled today in New York. As we reported last month, this will be a T-Mobile phone (built by HTC), and it will be available to T-Mobile subscribers for $179 starting Oct. 22 (two-year contract).
It features a touch screen that slides …

France Telecom is finally pulling the plug on the 26-year-old Minitel service, which it launched in France in 1982. (Actually, Minitel is really 15 years older than that according to SEC filings: “Under an advertising sales agreement entered into in 1967, France Telecom granted PagesJaunes exclusive rights to canvas and collate the advertising to be incorporated …

Pegasus News is launching an iPhone App on July 11 to coincide with the launch of iPhone 3G. The app for the Dallas city guide will feature events, restaurants, drinks, Wi-Fi and garage sales, all searchable by the hour and by location. An interesting demo video is available here.
President Mike Orren says the iPhone 3G …

Yellow Pages Group New Zealand has announced the debut of “Yellow mobile” on the Telecom and Vodafone Live! networks. 
According to New Zealand’s Business to Business magazine:
“Yellow Pages Group Digital Media Director Blair Glubb said Yellow mobile will complement the company’s existing range of advertising solutions which already cover the print, online and voice (via …

Consumers looking to map out a Saturday morning errand run or a Saturday night bar-hop — and find out about any special offers along the way — can now do so easily via MetroSeeq, a Portland, Oregon, start-up by Intel-vet Kevin Chen. The site was launched two weeks ago and has already had 40,000 visitors.
Chen …

An innovative bar code technology, QR Codes, first developed in Japan by Denso-Wave has been introduced in Singapore by Singapore Press Holdings. Branded as ZapCodes, the two-dimensional bar codes enable mobile phones equipped with cameras and special software to download information or link users to Web sites for more information. According to the Straits Times: 
“ZapCodes …

Two consumer advocacy groups plan to file an FTC complaint about mobile marketing and its emerging practices. The advocacy group Digital Democracy filed its complaint in conjunction with U.S. Public Interest Research Group.  
According to an article in MediaPost, Jeff Chester, founder of Digital Democracy, says, “We’re filing a complaint to force the FTC to take a proactive …

“Free one touch directory assistance” from Google’s free directory assistance service, Goog-411, is being advertised in Office Depot’s newspaper circulars as a main feature on GE Dect 6.0 Digital Cordless Phones.
The ad copy spells it out:
1- Use the dedicated one touch button on your GE phone.
2- Search for a business by name or category.
3- Goog-411 …

All right, this isn’t directly tied to local search, but it’s really cool. This morning, at the Macworld expo, Steve Jobs introduced the newest addition to the Apple family, the MacBook Air.

It’s small enough to fit into an interoffice envelope and gets five hours of battery life — significantly raising the bar for laptop mobility standards. …

While the other telcos have divested their Yellow Pages units, AT&T maintains that there is real synergy in pursuing a three-screen strategy. Rather than selling the YP unit and using the proceeds to build out its network, a la Verizon, AT&T is betting that there is a home field advantage in keeping its landline, mobile …

It is hard for me to comprehend, but we are finally finished with ILM:07. We were grateful to have had 650 interesting and enthusiastic attendees from all over the world, 72 stimulating speakers, a full load of sponsors and an excellent partnership with SES.
Our next conference, April 30-May 2 at the Westin in Seattle, will …

Interactive Local Media: 07 is ready to roll Nov. 28-30 in L.A. That’s next Wednesday through Friday!
The show, which is being produced in partnership with SES Local, has attendees from all over the world. One exec told me he is coming on Wednesday, taking the red eye to New York that night due to …

The numbers are looking very, very good for the Interactive Local Media:07 conference in L.A. Nov. 28-30. Internally, we think this one is a record breaker. Register and book the hotel while you can. The latter tends to sell out.
In recent weeks, we’ve been putting the final touches on the program. For instance, we’ve added …

The game changing device and forebear to the iPhone turns six years old today. The unofficial Apple blog has the story, along with a video of Steve Jobs’ original unveiling keynote at Macworld.
It’s amazing how much the device has evolved since 2001; yet another piece of Moore’s Law in action (insane sales growth also doesn’t …

Big names, interesting people, compelling research. Forgive the commercial message here, but we’re set to deliver the goods at The Kelsey Group’s Interactive Local Media 2007 (ILM:07), Nov. 28-30 in L.A.
I think there’s something for everyone. And this year, as most of you know, we’ve partnered with Search Engine Strategies for a series of practical …

While I am in Reston, VA, attending Kelsey’s Directory Driven Commerce conference, I thought it would be a good time to start talking about our next show, which I am co-producing: Interactive Local Media 2007. The show is being done in tandem with SES Local, takes place Nov. 28-30, and is at the Los Angeles …

Just 74 days after it launched, and five days after Apple cut its price by $200, the iPhone sold its 1 millionth unit yesterday. It reached this milestone weeks before Apple had forecast, no doubt pushed over the edge by the many users who were previously on the fence because of price sensitivities.
Indeed, the product …

Yellow Book today joined Canada’s YPG in launching AgendiZe, the service that captures Yellow Pages and classifieds info and puts it on up to 66 media platforms for recall. On deck for implementation is Belo’s Dallas Morning News. I wrote an extensive post about the service last year.
Yellow Book’s implementation is no great surprise. Chief …

As mentioned in last week’s post Here Comes the Gphone, one of the worries (among many) causing U.S. wireless carriers to exert so much control over the devices that run on their networks is the development of Wi-Fi-enabled phones.
This would be a first step toward enabling consumers to bypass cellular minutes in favor of cheaper …

InfoSpace’s flagship mobile local search product, FindIt, is now available on the iPhone. I knew this would be coming soon, and it is a natural fit for the ease of use of the new device and its mobile local search possibilities.

Other mobile local search applications have been made available for the iPhone, such as Earthcomber, …