DexOne has made online video a standard element of its Enhanced Pack online advertising bundle as a way to encourage wider adoption of online video, according a release issued today.
“Online video advertising has become an increasingly important tool for businesses to convey their services, location and personality,” said …

I recently attended a webinar hosted by SalesBlogcast that featured social media company BizBrag. My reason for attending was to learn how small and medium sized-businesses can take advantage of social media. Based on our Local Commerce Monitor research, 32 percent of SMBs said they plan to use a social site, while 31 percent indicated …

U.K. directory publisher Yell is launching an overall redesign to its online directory today that follows the trend of building an immersive online Yellow Pages experience. The new site includes 3-D maps and street cam. Working with partners C3 and Tridoo, Yell has built lifelike 3-D images of four of Britain’s largest cities — London, …

In a general session at YPA 2010 this morning, BIA/Kelsey’s Charles Laughlin moderated an advertiser panel that featured two advertisers as well as two publisher representatives. The advertiser representatives were local Las Vegas personal injury attorney, George Bochanis, and Shannon Rodman, Director, YPMG Marketing Operations at ServiceMaster. Publisher representatives were Chris Heilbock, regional vice president …

BIA/Kelsey’s Charles Laughlin moderated a fascinating panel this morning featuring four CEOs from the interactive local media space. Laughlin was joined by Kimberli Lewis, CEO, Mediatel (Czech Republic); Scott Pomeroy, CEO of Berry, a Local Insight Media company; Mat Stover, CEO, Local Matters; and Bruce Akhurst, CEO, Sensis.
To kick off the panel, Laughlin presented some …

HelloMetro, the local news and city guide company based in Louisville, Kentucky, said that it now has unique hyperlocal content for 40 markets, and national coverage. The company has “Hello(cityname)” URLs covering the country, and relies on a core team of 25 journalists — or 15 full-time equivalents — to pump out the content. The …

AT&T has unveiled a new version of its Yellowpages.com online directory, complete with a new name (YP.com); a new algorithmic approach to search; updated maps; and a set of vertical integrations with leading partners in cars, hotels, events and movies.
AT&T Interactive GM Greg Isaacs told us in a briefing today that the site was redone …

The French directory publisher PagesJaunes has made a significant move by acquiring 100 percent of the Austrian people search site 123People, which has a global audience of more than 40 million unique visitors in 11 countries, according to the PagesJaunes announcement. Terms were not disclosed.

Here is how PagesJaunes CEO Jean-Pierre Remy describes the deal:
“We are …

Quietly, SuperMedia is rolling out a new approach to online search. If you look on Switchboard.com today, you’ll notice that search results are presented differently from before. Now, Switchboard’s top results based on relevancy are plotted on a map (this might look familiar), with the remaining results pushed further down the page.
This represents the …

Just six months after it launched its SP411 Twitter integration, Superpages is at it again with an offer to Tweet any coupon that businesses upload to an online profile.
To do this it has created 72 city-specific Twitter accounts, which users in those cities can follow to get daily tweets for coupons and promotions happening around …

It’s nearing the end of earnings season for the global Yellow Pages industry, and my program, The Kelsey Report, will soon issue a detailed roundup of 2009 results across all the companies that report publicly.
In general, the news has been grim for print Yellow Pages, though some publishers have given faint glimmers of hope that …

SuperMedia has announced a new program that extends its SuperGuarantee idea into the autos vertical. The SuperGuarantee Autos program gives anyone who buys a car on SuperMedia’s EveryCarListed.com automotive vertical a free limited powertrain warranty good for up to $3,000.
SuperMedia acquired EveryCarListed last February and has since made its comprehensive video inventory a key point …

Last week the Australian directory publisher Sensis released its half-year financial results, ended Dec. 31, 2009, which showed pretty strong resilience but nonetheless a meaningful decline in print revenues. For the half-year period, combined print and online Yellow Pages results were down 4.3 percent. Print Yellow Pages declined 8.7 percent. Including White Pages, the print …

Gannett has always seemed to be a likely directory player. In fact, the world’s largest newspaper publisher owns a small group of print directories. It also provides a white-labeled online directory product to its media properties.
But as directories, search and user-generated content have become more commingled, Gannett has gone a step further with the launch …

The Berry Co. announced today new alliances with Yodle and Web.com that will add to the portfolio of online product and services Berry will offer its small-business customers. The deals are part of a new branded offering called Berry Leads that the company will roll out market by market in 2010.
The deals fit into Berry’s …

AT&T released its full-year 2009 earnings today, and its Advertising Solutions unit, which includes print Yellow Pages and Yellowpages.com, posted total revenues of US$4.8 billion, a 12.6 percent decline.
AT&T online directories unit Yellowpages.com grew 12.7 percent in Q4, compared with Q3 growth of 20.7 percent. Total online revenues for the year were US$884 million, which …

Here’s a question: How long would directory publishers sit back and let new companies such as RedBeacon, AlikeList and others disrupt the leads economy for SMBs with search and socially driven features such as Twitter and Facebook? Or Google, with Place Pages? That’s a question that Local Matters and other Yellow Pages  vendors have obviously …

Canada’s Yellow Pages Group has deepened its investment in verticals with its recent acquisition of Restaurantica, one of Canada’s largest online dining communities. Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but a report by Paul Steep at Scotia Capital suggests the amount was immaterial to YPG’s financial results.
Restaurantica was founded in 2003, and has more …

The Berry Co. (formerly Berry and Local Insight Media) has unveiled a revamped organization and business model aimed at greater efficiency and support of a new “client–focused” strategy, the company announced last week.
As a result, the company is slimming down, closing offices in Hudson and Cincinnati, Ohio, and Pennsylvania and consolidating operations in North Carolina. …

MerchantCircle has registered its millionth SMB, Nassau Avenue Nails of Islip, NY. Owner Danielle Biegler found out about MerchantCircle after searching for other local businesses nearby, and will receive a lifetime MerchantCircle tools, cool MerchantCircle gear and a new sign.
The million number represents roughly 6.7 percent of U.S. SMBs. It may not mean much in …