MySpace and Citysearch today confirmed the launch of MySpace Local, a new local city guide using functionality and feeds from Citysearch, including its taxonomy of categorization, geography structure, search functionality and content. The site is launching a beta version of the site this week, with a general U.S. launch next month. It will be available [...]
Monthly Archives: March 2009
Booking by the Hour? Hourville Enters ‘Appointments’ Space
March 30, 2009 – 11:04 pm
The local appointments space has a new entrant in the form of Austin-based Hourville. The startup, created by several friends from UT’s business school, premiered at SXSW. It lets users book anything by the hour, including services, rentals, classes and places.
Users may use the service to “search locally,” “book and [...]
What’s Wal-Mart Really Doing with Classifieds? A Few Details
March 30, 2009 – 4:43 pm
One of the great mysteries is what Wal-Mart is really doing with classifieds. Last June, it signed up to use the Oodle platform, but not much has been heard from it since.
In this week’s AdAge, Walmart’s Duncan Dreschel sheds a little light, noting that the company seeks to simultaneously extend the brand, drive traffic to [...]
The Knot Launches Local Wedding Sites
March 27, 2009 – 7:32 pm
The Knot has launched 75 local URL sites as well as several niche sites, including Chinese weddings, gay wedding, beach weddings and destination weddings. More than 200 local and niche sites are planned by the end of 2009, according to coverage in The Wall Street Journal.
Much of the local sites content is re-purposed and [...]
How Can Google Improve? Local Execs Comment
March 26, 2009 – 11:01 pm
We all live in Google’s world now. Nobody would dispute that there are many positives associated with that. But how do industry practitioners really feel about it. Can it be improved? We asked three executives who cover different parts of the local ecosystem, promising them anonymity.
An aggregator said he thinks he should be treated [...]
Dealix Launches New Leads Platform
March 24, 2009 – 10:59 pm
Online leads for cars are broken. The vast majority of auto shoppers won’t even fill out a request for bid because they think they’ll get inaccurate, incomplete and tardy information back from the dealer.
But that doesn’t stop vendors from working on better solutions. Today, Cobalt’s Dealix division rolled out a new leads platform that it [...]
Doug Weaver: Solutions to the ‘Failed State’ of Advertising
AdAge’s Bob Garfield famously sketched out a “chaos scenario” in which the media/advertising infrastructure collapses, venerable media brands fold bad poker hands and feral cats carry off small children.
This week, Garfield says it is all actually happening because of fragmentation, a shift to consumer control and hard economics. “Media and advertising today amount to a [...]
Continue reading