We’re out with our predictions for 2009. But what’s the final word for 2008? Truly, it was a very stimulating and thoughtful year for our local media and commerce industry. But speaking for myself, it’s hard to say whether it was a good year, especially with fresh layoffs that we are hearing about every day. …

Local mobile portals make a lot of sense since most phones (even the iPhone 3G) don’t really lend themselves to much surfing. Another social/viral dimension is added through social networking enhancements via profile pages, Twitter and especially GPS.
Two services seem to be leading the way for locally based mobile social networking right now: Silicon Valley-based Loopt, …

The Egypt Yellow Pages, operated by Dubai-based Al Wahda Express LLC, has launched an online/mobile mapping service. According to the announcement, users will be able to view local businesses on their mobile phones in either satellite or map view.
We believe mobile search will be a critical usage channel overall in the coming years, but even …

AOL’s MapQuest has strived to remake itself for several years. But it has really been going into overdrive since June, with new management, and the launch of MapQuest Local, a map-based directory and city guide service. More recently, it has unleashed specially tailored versions for smartphones.
What’s surprising about MapQuest is that it remains the industry …

Urban Mapping has released its latest API that taps into its database of 60 public transit systems in the U.S. and U.K. This will be available for developers of online and mobile mapping and local search applications.
Transit information could be a valuable addition to existing online mapping products that are competing hard to gain market …

We’re just about ready to go with Interactive Local Media 2008, which is Nov. 19-21 in Santa Clara, in the heart of Silicon Valley. It should be a very important, game-defining event — and the first one for The Kelsey Group in the new BIA Advisory Services era (BIA Financial Network acquired Kelsey last week, adding …

Local voice search advertising is already getting promising results, with widespread reach, and high clickthrough rates, according to V-Enable CMO Craig Hagopian, who was speaking at DMS ’08. V-Enable is a San Diego-based mobile voice search company with 65 employees. It partners with Superpages.com, Yellowbook, and AT&T’s Ingenio and Yellowpages.com.
Hagopian said the company is …

MapQuest today launched MapQuest Local, the biggest departure yet from its longstanding model as a place to primarily get driving directions. The company has been careful not to tinker with this model given its commanding market share lead in the online mapping space.
But as we’ve followed MapQuest over the past few years, it’s slowly begun …

Windows Virtual Earth evangelist Chris Pendleton writes on his blog about the availability of display advertising on Live Search Maps.
Known as “highlighted listings,” this is similar to the mapvertising Google Maps offers. Both place icons on map locations — sort of a premium placement beyond an organic map listing. Icons also show up whenever users …

Google Maps has rolled out a new look and feel, which involves larger maps and “less clutter.”
From the Google LatLong blog:
“With the new look for Google Maps, you can do all of the same things, but without the extra clutter. Find businesses (creamery near palo alto), addresses (6605 Delmar Blvd, St Louis, MO), and more …

Google has rolled out a walking directions feature in its mapping product, previously available to few users in a limited rollout (as the company often tests new products or features). This was first offered by AskCity in 2006, but then the market was once again deprived of the functionality when it killed its homegrown mapping …

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 …

Microsoft’s Virtual Earth Blog posted yesterday that AskCity will now use Virtual Earth to power its mapping and local features. This will take the place of Ask’s homegrown mapping tool that was the first to come out with multi-point directions, drawing tools and lots of other features that have since been adopted by other mapping …

Is there room for a new, locally oriented social network if it is more practical than Facebook, MySpace, Bebo, LinkedIn, et al? That’s what Norwest Partners and Keynote Ventures are betting $6.5 million on with the launch this week of Center’d, formerly known as FatDoor.
The service is headed up by former Yahoo! Marketplaces head Jennifer …

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 …

Google has begun to place geotagged news stories in Google Earth. By mousing over news icons on the map, preview windows appear that show stories from Google News. This adds to the news stories it was already plotting via its partnership with The New York Times.
This is also similar to what MetaCarta does with news stories …

The latest show of climbing video game sales came in April’s 47 percent year-over-year increase. The $1.23 billion in game & console sales was buoyed by continued success of the Nintendo Wii, as well as the release of the hotly anticipated Grand Theft Auto IV.
As this usage continues to climb, there are also developments from …

Yahoo! Local just integrated a drawing tool that lets users specify a radius within which to filter results. AskCity has a similar drawing tool (with additional shapes), and Urban Mapping has a platform that does this. On the advertiser side, AdWords and a few other SEM platforms allow marketers to specify where to serve their …

Just a quick note to point out that UMI’s geotargeted keyword generation tool (among other things) has launched today. Details of the platform and the concept behind it are in our past write-up (scroll).

Local retailers are increasingly going beyond store locators to drive sales. The extensions to store locators include brand locators, coupons, menus, trip planners, and even guides to where Wi-Fi, nonsmoking and RV parking can be found.
A leading vendor in providing retailer solutions is Anaheim, California-based Where2GetIt. Roughly 280 companies and 550 brands are using Where2GetIt …