Business and Marketing News
Google’s local efforts have grown tremendously under the direction of Marissa Mayer, and now encompass a wide range of products, including Google Maps, Google Places, Zagat, Google Offers, and Get Online a new SMB initiative. At ILM West this week in San Francisco, Head of Local Consumer Marketing Jeff Aguero provided a rich portrait of … Read more
AOL reaffirmed its strong interest in local today, announcing that it is purchasing Patch.com, a 25 person hyperlocal service invested in by new CEO Tim Armstrong when he was still at Google; and Going.com, an events-driven social network and self-serve ticketing platform aimed at 20- somethings. Patch.com is currently in five suburban New Jersey towns, with three Connecticut town and an … Read more
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. In fact, … Read more
U.S. newspapers have largely maintained the artificial line that separates their classifieds from Yellow Pages. And vice versa. There have been a couple of minor Yellow Pages acquisitions over time (Hearst with White and Affiliated; Gannett with Hometown Directories and years ago, Space Coast Directories). And newspapers have launched half-hearted “business directories,” basically filling a … Read more
Digital reservations are seizing on SaaS cloud-based models and becoming the norm not only for Open Table-oriented white table cloth restaurants, but fast casual restaurants, beauty salons, spas and even hospital emergency rooms and Department of Motor Vehicles. Yelp SVP of Business and Corporate Development Chad Richard, speaking at LSA18 this week in Chicago, said a “decentralization of … Read more
Google is adding Wildfire to its social-oriented suite of business services, paying “about $250 Million,” according to a source cited by The Wall Street Journal. The San Francisco-based company provides social media analytics for 16,000 customers, ranging from large SMBs to major brands such as Amazon, Unilever and Virgin. Wildfire launched in 2008 as a self-serve platform that … Read more
The new breed of content aggregators is among the biggest bets in online media. These companies are assembling content from hundreds of thousands of contributors; optimizing it on the search engines so that it is easily found; and syndicating it. Demand Media is probably the biggest company in the space. But others include Examiner.com, which has a … Read more
Google is simultaneously the most open and most shut business I can think of. On one hand, it is amazingly transparent. You walk around the two campuses in Mountain View and you can walk right by Larry and Sergey’s offices. During my short time there, I even spied CEO Eric Schmidt casually ambling by with a … Read more
One big takeaway from The NAA Marketing show last week in Orlando was that newspapers are ready to build up a zillion niche products that allow them to leverage their editorial talents. But not much progress, or even attention, is being paid to local search. It makes you wonder If newspapers are really serious about reaching out … Read more
It is hard for me to comprehend, but we are finally finished with ILM:07. We were grateful to have had 650 interesting and enthusiastic attendees from all over the world; 72 stimulating speakers; a full load of sponsors; and an excellent partnership with SES. Our next conference, April 30-May 2 at the Westin in Seattle, will … Read more