http://blog.kelseygroup.com News & Views on Local Search and Media Fri, 09 May 2008 06:58:40 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Agendize announced today from the EADP conference in Spain that it will partner with Videoagency, to power its video ads with call to action features. This brings Agendize's signature click-to-call and save and share features (profiled in a past post) to video for the first time. Mixpo provides similar functionality, ... http://blog.kelseygroup.com/index.php/2008/05/08/agendize-powers-local-video/ Despite some traction by sites like Yelp – ok, specifically Yelp -- the hybrid IYP/ratings-and-review segment remain something of a question mark in the industry. It remains to be seen whether such sites can attract a large number of frequent reviewers and users – and not just recent college grads ... http://blog.kelseygroup.com/index.php/2008/05/08/mojopages-claims-traction-announces-deals-with-key-players/ Like Idearc Media earlier this week, RH Donnelley received a boost in its share price today after unveiling first quarter results that showed that market conditions are about as bad as expected, but not any worse. The company also unveiled a refinancing plan that will increase interest expense while also ... http://blog.kelseygroup.com/index.php/2008/05/08/rhd-gets-bump-from-1q-results/ During DDL last week, I was able to finally meet Palore CEO Hanan Lifshitz. We profiled Palore a year ago, when it was a browser overlay that enhanced search engine results with personalized icon-based notifications of business attributes (pet friendly, kosher, vegetarian, etc.). Since then, the company has changed its model ... http://blog.kelseygroup.com/index.php/2008/05/08/pallore-releases-local-data/ Perry Evans has a great post today on the opportunity and threat Yellow Pages publishers face from the verticalization of local search. We thank him for acknowledging TKG's role in highlighting the emergence of vertical search at our Drilling Down on Local conference last week in Seattle. In particular, Evans talks about ... http://blog.kelseygroup.com/index.php/2008/05/07/verticals-and-yellow-pages/ The final day of The Kelsey Group's Drilling Down on Local conference featured a keynote by Merrill Brown of MMB Media. Brown is an industry guru with a history of developing groundbreaking media strategies and operations. Among other things, he has been editor-in-chief then SVP of MSNBC.com. He also created ... http://blog.kelseygroup.com/index.php/2008/05/07/you-aint-seen-nothin-yet/ Elizabeth Gage of PCM International posted a well thought out blog on the challenges small and medium-sized businesses face when purchasing search engine marketing campaigns, either on their own or through Yellow Page publishers. After reading her thoughts on the subject, I couldn’t help but realize that the focus of ... http://blog.kelseygroup.com/index.php/2008/05/07/selling-search-engine-marketing-to-smes-service-has-to-come-with-the-sale/ 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 ... http://blog.kelseygroup.com/index.php/2008/05/07/digital-democracy-or-restriction-on-mobile-advertising-growth/ Online video production company Spot Runner announced today that it has received $51 million from Legg Mason, Daily Mail and General Trust (DMGT), Grupo Televisa, and Groupe Arnault/LVMH. The company will use the funding to continue growing its capacity to deliver video advertising, both online and off. These investments are also ... http://blog.kelseygroup.com/index.php/2008/05/07/spot-runner-raises-51-million/ AOL may have trouble on several fronts, but it still gets millions of users and it intends to fully leverage them at the local level, per Chris Spanos, Director of Search Verticals, who was speaking at Kelsey Seattle. “Given its scale, local just hasn’t been getting fair share.” Spanos says the ... http://blog.kelseygroup.com/index.php/2008/05/06/drilling-down-on-local-08-aol-reinvests-in-local/