Today’s big news is Microsoft’s unsolicited takeover bid for Yahoo!. The $44.6 billion bid represents a 62 percent premium on Yahoo!’s closing stock price yesterday, which was affected by Yahoo!’s depressing earnings announcement, in which Yahoo! said it would lay off 1,000 workers to “re-accelerate” growth.
For 2007, Yahoo! reported a net profit of $660 …

Microsoft Canada Co. and Yellow Pages Group Canada announced that Microsoft Virtual Earth mapping software is now available on YellowPages.ca. The software licensing deal allows YPG to provide a more robust map experience for users. It will also enable the publisher to push the mapping technology to its various online properties and eventually create additional …

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 …

Amazon yesterday launched a $399 electronic black-and-white e-reader called “Kindle” that can quickly download books and customized versions of newspapers, magazines and blogs over a limited-use free EVDO network. Seven newspapers are included in the first batch of content: The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Washington Post, Seattle Times, San Francisco Chronicle, …

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 …

 
I am not a New York City person anymore, in great measure because of the challenge of getting from one location to another. So when I do have to go to New York, I try to cover as much ground as I can. Recently I was able to arrange four meetings in the city on …

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 …

          
Every Yellow Pages publisher is trying to answer the question of how to increase revenues through the addition or enhancement of an Internet Yellow Pages product. The larger publishers are able to hire a team of highly skilled and increasingly experienced experts who can help them develop the optimal IYP product and become media integrators …

John L. Scott, a leading broker in the Pacific Northwest, has carved out a niche for itself as a major implementator of technology, even as it sticks to a full-service model. Speaking at Inman’s Real Estate Connect last week, Chairman and CEO Lennox Scott said “the game plan is real-time real estate.”
Along those lines, Scott …

Starting this fall, Idearc Media’s Superpages may be accessed via instant messaging as a result of a new relationship with Multiplied Media, the Calgary-based provider of Poynt, a local search service that operates over IM. Multiplied Media was formerly known as IllumiCell. Poynt currently hosts Yellow Pages Group’s Internet Yellow Pages and classifieds in Canada.
“It is …

Summary
After completing a free DA call this week using Google’s newly launched 800-GOOG411, we were asked if a text message was desired in addition to the free voice and “connect me” features (the multimodal functionality that is standard in a growing number of free DA offerings). But what we also received, interestingly, was a link …

Here at O’Reilly’s Where 2.0 conference in San Jose, an annual event for 800+ mashup developers, there’s no perspective yet on the importance of maps to the local ecosphere. But a picture is developing of a “3D Data arms race,” in which Google, Microsoft, Yahoo and others are spending fortunes vying to have developers use …

Microsoft announced this morning from the Where 2.0 conference that it will add New York City to the list of cities available in 3-D in Live Local Maps. We wrote about 3-D mapping and its possibilities for Local in a previous post. This also follows closely behind other enhancements to Microsoft’s mapping products including 14 …

Summary
Examining patent filings has become something of a beat, in the blogospheric reporting of online media. ZDNet’s Russel Shaw takes a look at a fresh Google patent application for a new mobile local search app. The long term potential of mobile advertising could be huge given the size of the mobile user population. However, …

Summary
An article yesterday on the SeekingAlpha blog examines a recent wave of investment consolidation in the online media space. This signals, among other things, an impending acceleration of advertising shifts from offline to off, and a revenue diversification play on the part of search giants. As this happens, TKG data suggests vertical search sites will …

Map-centric directories from the likes of Google and Microsoft, enhanced with satellite and 3D imagery, are absolutely fascinating. They're also increasingly functional, with all kinds of searchable links.
But is it really clear that they are the future of directories? As things stand, I could see an equation where maybe 15 percent of usage is map-driven, …

Microsoft announced today that it has agreed to acquire Tellme, a Mountain View, California-based voice search provider. Yesterday, Microsoft and Tellme briefed The Kelsey Group about the pending acquisition. Neither side would disclose the size of the deal, but we have learned from credible sources that it is worth at least US$800 million. This figure …

Rumors are swirling about a potential Microsoft acquisition of Tellme Networks. The latest is a Wall Street Journal article (sub. req’d) that reports a possible sale price of US$800 million (here is coverage from TechCrunch if you don’t have a WSJ sub).
Whether or not this is true, it’s clear that Tellme is a strong (and …

Back in 1999, Microsoft sold a small business called Sidewalk because it didn’t fit into its core software business at the time. In a lengthy story in Sunday’s New York Times, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer admitted: “but Sidewalk was really aimed at what we now call local search. Sidewalk is one (business) we should not …