ILM West is shaping up to be one of the great ones. Taking place Dec. 12-14 in downtown San Francisco, ILM West really reflects a sea change in local marketing from advertising to the new hybrid model of advertising and commerce (i.e. prepaid deals, reputation management, mobile app sales etc.).

We’ve made some big additions since our last update, starting with Google and Facebook. These add to the existing lineup, including our “rock stars” (Clear Channel CEO and industry legend Bob Pittman AllThingsD’s Kara Swisher, Media News Group/Journal Register CEO John Paton and Deseret Media and former Harvard Business School Professor Clark Gilbert), and major sessions on deals, offers, verticals and the whole spectrum of local trends.

We will pursue three unique angles on Google at ILM West:

1- The local efforts, under Marissa Mayer’s local team. Jeff Aguero, head of local marketing, will present on everything local, from Zagat, to Google Places, to the Big G’s new “Get Online” program for SMBs. These strategies have really developed since this summer.

2- The global reseller effort. Global Channels head Todd Rowe will engage in an in-depth conversation with BIA/Kelsey President Neal Polachek on all his efforts.

3- Google Mobile. Mobile and Local Search exec Surojit Chatterjee will provide insights into this critical area for Google as part of our All SoLoMo morning on Day 3.

We’re also going deep with Facebook at ILM West. Facebook’s new local leader Matt Idema is our afternoon keynote on Day 2, with a lot of new details and a progress report on the local and vertical strategies. On Day 1, we are also taking a special look at working with Facebook’s platform with execs from Trada, Oodle and Kenshoo Local/Social weighing in. Eager but not sure how to play with Facebook? You will be when ILM West is done.

The SoLoMo event on Day 3 itself is going to be quite the cornerstone for ILM West. Curated by the research teams from our Social Local Media and Mobile Local Media programs, SoLoMo features top line data; and indepth and fresh looks at SoLoMo implementations from leaders at Google, AT&T Interactive, Zaarly, PayPal, XAd, JiWire and AppStack (Steve Espinosa’s new project.)

You can see the full agenda here. And register here.

Remember: We are making a donation to the SF/Marin County Food Bank for all registrations that come in by Thanksgiving.

Wooton said that Microsoft was one of only two companies that had the wide ranging platform that could meet all of today’s SMB media needs –the other apparently being Google. “We can support consumer experiences across any device supporting queries with geographic intent,” he said, noting that it goes beyond monetization via the Ad Center to also include Microsoft’s local business portal services, mapping platform and even its XBox games platform – the “only truly cool thing that Microsoft owns,” Wooton joked.

Microsoft sees tremendous opportunity in the SMB channel. $8 billion is likely to be spent on websites by 2013, and $15 billion altogether. The company is already well positioned via its “search alliance” partnership with Yahoo, which handles 30 percent of the overall marketplace. It also has strategic partnerships with IYPs such as SuperMedia, YP.com and DexOne Media,” noted Wooton.

Research commissioned from Bain & Co., by Microsoft supports his thesis. Twenty five percent of SMBs use partners; 35 percent of their total spend is indirect. Those that use channel partners spend 8X those that don’t.

The online real estate company, which competes with brokerage sites, Trulia and others, also announced that CFO Spencer Rascoff has been appointed CEO, replacing Expedia Founder Rich Barton, who becomes Executive Chairman and focuses on a heavy portfolio of vertical investments, such as Avvo.com, the legal site.

Rascoff and Barton , in a phone call yesterday, tell us that the company is currently driving revenue on Zillow.com, Yahoo Real Estate and Mobile from five key revenue streams, including its Mortgage Marketplace, display, national advertising, local advertising and mobile advertising. The latter channel has become especially critical and now accounts for 20 percent of usage on weekends, says Barton. “Real estate is the ultimate local shopping experience,” suggests Rascoff.

The mortgage marketplace, especially, has become one of the company’s fastest growing areas as well, with 314,000 mortgages leads being processed on the site, up six fold from August 2009 , when it was introduced. This compares in the balance to four million homes being listed, and 150,000 rental listings. Twenty—five percent of home shoppers are now looking at home rentals as a point of comparison, says Rascoff.

MerchantCircle is joining the ranks of companies creating local and vertical content, including Demand Media, Associated Content, Examiner.com, AOL’s Seed and Patch, Perfect Market, Helium, Brafton Media and others. MC’s new Local Content Studio is being helmed by Andy Halliday, who many of us remember as former head of eCommerce at Excite@Home, who has since been engaged in several entrepreneurial efforts.

The basic idea for MC’s Local Content Studios, and the others, is to create optimized content that can be used to economically and efficiently spur local traffic to its directories and profiles, while driving ad impressions. Presumably, MC will have an edge over rivals via 1.3 million SMBs that have claimed profiles on the service, covering 95 percent of U.S. communities.

The SMBs may be seeking to build attention for themselves (i.e. real estate agents), and/or earn awards or make a little cash –$1 or $2 per article. The cash can eventually add up: some SMBs, in early testing, are already being sent checks for $300 and up.

The Studio is, in fact, may be seen as an extension of MC’s Answers division, launched last September, in which members are encouraged to provide their expertise on a wide range of subjects (where to fix, how to fix, etc.). Both efforts are part of a broader effort to broaden Merchant Circle’s identity and engagement with consumers and businesses beyond the core directory.

At the heart of The Studios is an online authoring and publishing system which can support thousands of simultaneous content development projects. The projects can be claimed by local merchant members or other writers remotely, submitted, reviewed for approval or corrections, and published to local and topical “Expert Pages.”

Merchant Circle VP Darren Waddell says that the creation of the Studio does not alter Merchant Circle’s extensive and successful relationship with Demand Media, which includes syndication of MC’s Answers, domain registration for MC members, and expert articles and other content to MC profiles for $9.95 per month, among other activities.

MerchantCircle’s efforts to launch more local content is not occurring in a vacuum. We have watched with interest as Yahoo has been developing local news and information via the hiring of writers in New York and San Francisco, and recruitment of writer/editors in San Jose, Chicago and Denver, per reporting in Paid Content. Their written and edited material will likely be paired with material from Associated Content, which Yahoo purchased this spring. It represents a very different take than Patch.com, which is hiring journalists for hyperlocal reporting in up to 500 communities.

Gannett’s local newspapers and TV stations will begin selling Yahoo inventory, considerably boosting the size of Yahoo’s local sales efforts. The deal, which involves 81 newspaper organizations and seven of its 23 TV stations– is similar to the efforts of Yahoo’s 800 member Newspaper Consortium.

But Gannett, notably, is staying separate from the Consortium. In part, Gannett was concerned that contract was newspaper specific. (even though Media General and Freedom Interactive, which both have added TV stations, seem to work within it). The timing for originally joining the Consortium also wasn’t good, as Gannett was still backing CareerBuilder while the consortium was launched with Yahoo Hot Jobs.

Yahoo VP of Channel Sales Lem Lloyd has been working on projects with Gannett for over a decade, starting when he was an executive at Knight Ridder and they co-owned verticals ranging from CareerBuilder to Cars.com. “When the corporate entity puts a focus on something, they have a great ability to have local properties execute.strong sales and execution,” he says.

Lloyd adds that both entities are committing major resources to the new effort. “Gannett is in an especially strong position to help due to its portfolio of smaller media markets, which typically fall from DMAs 75-200,” says Lloyd. “It is a great proving ground for selling more sophisticated advertising to local businesses.”

What isn’t involved is Gannett Local, a separate venture designed to sell search solutions to SMBs. Tribune also recently launched a local search arm. Lloyd notes that the Yahoo deal won’t be at all search oriented.

The new effort adds another dimension to Yahoo’s local reachout, which currently focuses on newspapers and Yellow Pages. The Valassis relationship has the potential to bring its broadcaster and telco marketing affiliates into Yahoo’s fold as well.

The new deal marks an evolution of the local strategy, which seeks to be all embracing in efforts to win a higher percentage of local budgets for online, while also focusing on specific verticals, such as fast food.

In related local Yahoo news, Paid Content reports that Yahoo has dropped some under-performers from its Newspaper Consortium. Yahoo told the newsletter that fewer than a dozen of its 800-plus newspaper members were involved.

HotJobs has been on the market since Carol Bartz took over as CEO of Yahoo early last year (or even before). It hasn’t been clear if anyone would buy it for more than a fire-sale price. The deal’s price of $225 million does represent a significant discount from the $439 million that Yahoo paid in 2002, but it is more than some handicappers had been predicting.

The deal likely propels Monster well past Gannett’s CareerBuilder as the online recruitment leaders (by revenue). Lately, CareerBuilder’s lagging profits have become a drain on Gannett’s profits. Likewise, Monster today reported during an earnings call that 4Q revs were down 27 percent, and that it suffered a net loss of $2.1 million on 4Q revenues of $213 million.

For Yahoo, the deal is the latest in a series of selloffs. Notably, it sold its search business to Microsoft last year, and de-emphasized other areas such as shopping and small business. It has also been rumored to put some of its other verticals in play as well.

HotJobs, of course, had been the original glue that brought Yahoo and the newspapers together. But the consortium has lately been focused more on using Yahoo’s APT behavioral targeting advertising platform. Some members of the consortium already use Monster.

Recruitment remains a huge category. But in recent years, it has been challenged by the recession. It has also become a major battlezone driven by technologies, such as semantic search-and-match job listings, mapping and communities of interest. Indeed, a growing part of the market has moved to niche specialties, such as trade associations etc. At the same time, ancillary verticals such as vocational education, relocation and job fairs have proved to be less important than once thought.

It is also shows a shift to third party sales sites as possible substitutes for directories – or so third party sites hope. It is especially important as small businesses shift a disproportionate amount of their spending on marketing from traditional media to the Web as the economy recovers.

The sales challenge, however, is that many SMBs don’t always fully understand what their expectations should be and continue to churn at uncomfortably high levels. WebVisible CEO Kirsten Mangers cited an “inflection point” in month four of a contract. Once an SMB reaches it, their churn level is likely to dramatically reduced among SMBs.

Mangers also noted that SMB sales is positively impacted by the diffusion of Web-based technologies. “Whatever happens in national will make it to local in the next eighteen to 24 months,” she said. Video, for instance, has arrived in a major way. SMBs get a five to thirty-five percent lift in conversions by including video with their website.

Yodle’s Cunningham echoed Mangers on churn issues. “After six months, people are very, very loyal. Customer lifespans may be three or four years,” he said. And they should be loyal, he says, since third party sales groups do so much for SMBs. “They need the power of our ten person marketing department,” and so forth, he notes.

Cunningham and Mangers also said the search environment is getting more competitive and probably cheaper, as Google gets more competition from the likes of Yahoo and Microsoft Bing. Mangers noted that the efficacy of Yahoo is up 123 percent from last year as better technology has been applied. With relevance up significantly, “we can spend more money on Yahoo,” added Cunningham.

Money can also be spent on other marketing products. “It is not a one size fits all approach,” said Cunningham. Search advertising doesn’t make sense for every restaurant, for instance – especially is acquisition ends up costing $30-$50 a pop. If they’re smart, they’ll take a restaurant.com coupon-like approach, he said.

The LA Times’ Andy Vogel, meanwhile, said his paper has been making a different kind of pitch to SMBs, mostly focused on its broad, increasingly involved, 92 percent reach, which includes the flagship paper and its related verticals, as well as The Tribune’s other area radio stations, ethnic media, community papers and local blogs. Vogel noted that ten of the 50 most read blogs in the U.S. originate from a LA Times Media Group Brand.

“We produce tons of hyperlocal content,” he said. Tribune’s community paper in Newport Beach, for instance, produces more content and has a higher level of readership than any other local media.

On a sales level, that will be reinforced in 2010, as the sites integrate advanced mapping and geo-spatial applications. A new iPhone app, for instance, allows users to create programs and sell ads on specific streets, all nicely plotted for advertisers. “Small things like that can help customers absorb it better,” he said.. The site has leveraged this capability by adding a “geo-proximity celebrity” watch that users can tap into to report sightings of favorite stars.

Vogel also says that Tribune sales efforts are triply reinforced, thanks to a recent restructuring. “We have a sales force that includes ‘hunters,’ ‘farmers’ and ‘customer service reps,’” he says. That means “we have three people always thinking about your business.”

Recent adds to the speaker roster include Twitter’s Anamitra Banerji and AT&T Interactive’s Greg Issacs, who will be joining Facebook’s Tim Kendall and Citysearch’s Kara Nortman on our “Social/Local” panel.

We’ve also added Trinity Ventures’ Patricia Nakache, who joins Canaan Partners’ Warren Lee and Comcast Interactive’s Michael Yang on our “Money” panel.

Also, U.S. Local News Network’s Chris Jennewein joins USC Annenberg’s Geneva Overholser on “the Future of Local Media” session. And European Directories’ Simon Greenman joins Skype’s Andy Sims on “Skype’s Local Revolution” (especially interesting!)

My colleague Mike Boland also has added several top execs to the Mobile Superforum and our Pre-Conference on Local Search — a very useful “hands on” session for state-of-the-art local search tips and best practices.

Here’s the final lineup for the Mobile Superforum:
Sanjeev Agrawal, Aloqa
Surojit Chatterjee, Google
Steve Espinosa, Appetizr
Alistair Goodman, Placecast
Greg Hallinan, CMO, Verve Wireless
Meredith Papp, Google
Claudia Poepperl, adaffix
Jeff Porter, mobilePeople
Gleb Shaviner, Amdocs
Rahul Sonnad, Geodelic Systems

Here’s the final lineup for the Local Search Precon:
Panos Bethanis, DirectoryM
Jeff Ferguson, Local.com
Sivan Metzger, Kenshoo Local
David Mihm, David Mihm Inc.
Andrew Shotland, Local SEO Guide
Chris Spanos, AOL.com

Here‘s the registration info. IMPORTANT: Beat the Friday night price increase.

Yahoo is building on an area where it has already had some success. Local news modules on the Front Page have been in place for a couple of years, but they are currently automated and based on RSS feeds from local news sites, which gives it uneven results. Nevertheless, It drives a lot of clicks to local news sites, and likely helps to bring users to Yahoo as well.

At our Interactive Local Media conference in early December, Yahoo’s local efforts will be represented by VP Lem Lloyd; MSN’s local efforts will be represented by Executive Producer Scott Moore and Director Cyrus Krohn; and AOL’s local efforts will be represented by GM Chris Spanos.