Business and Marketing News
InsiderPages, IdeaLabs’ women-oriented social network that collects user-generated reviews for local businesses, says it now has “thousands of pay-per-call advertisers” and “is probably the biggest” pay-per- call network. In an interview with The Local Onliner, Vice President of Product Andrew Shotland, wouldn’t comment on rumors that the company is in talks to be acquired , … Read more
A dirty secret in the search wars is that you can basically “buy” enough traffic via Google AdWords and other sources to jump to the top of the usage charts. In a recent ZDNet column, Donna Bogatin implied that CitySearch has done exactly that. “Industry estimates of the cost to Citysearch for its ‘partnership’ with Google have … Read more
Google’s announcement that its self-serve system will be enabled for print newspapers gives newspapers an easier way to reach small businesses. Newspapers, of course, are famously challenged to apply their relatively limited sales forces to anything smaller than a car dealer or hospital. Here are some details: 50 larger newspapers, including titles by Gannett, Tribune, The New … Read more
Judy’s Book co-founder Andy Sack posts very candidly about the difficulties of launching a review/IYP site. Sack, who also founded Abuzz, one of the original review sites, and worked on Firefly, knows something about this subject by now. Founded in 2004 at around the same time as Insider’s Pages, which just changed CEOs, Judy’s Book claims one million unique visitors; a … Read more
Windows Live Expo, Microsoft’s entry in the classifieds war, has upped the ante against GoogleBase, Yahoo and the rest of them by signing with AdMission (formerly iPix) to use its SpotLight Ads technology. While advertisers can still post ads for free, the Windows Live team is betting that high value advertisers will pay $19.99 to upgrade to … Read more
Mobile search is seen as the big problem to solve in the directory business. But in the mobile business, many eyes are also on the development of location-based services, which are on the cusp of serious rollouts after years of false warnings, according to speakers at CTIA Entertainment ’06 in Los Angeles this week. “People always say … Read more
Yelp, a social network/Yellow Pages hybrid, has launched a mobile version for the Palm Treo as part of a broader marketing relationship between the two companies. Terms are not being disclosed, but cash and tech support have likely been provided in exchange for Yelp’s “optimizing” for the Treo, and for advertising the Treo relationship on the Yelp … Read more
Google doesn’t break out its revenue for local, but we can speculate. Piper Jaffray has said that 10 percent of Google’s revenues are attributable to “geotargeting,” per Greg Sterling. Based on Q2 earnings of $2.46 billion, that would mean Google grossed about $240 million from local in Q2, up from $225 million in Q1. We might … Read more
Tribune, Knight Ridder and Gannett’s success with CareerBuilder has lead to other newspaper companies wanting in on the national recruitment action. As Paid Content reports, CareerBuilder “had a great second quarter with network and affiliate revenues up 42 percent over last year” and in some respects, is beginning to run away from Monster. A number of newspaper companies, including … Read more
Real Estate-related Internet advertising will reach $2 billion in 2006, or 17.7 percent of all Real Estate spending, according to a new report by Borrell Associates Inc. The report predicts that online will jump to 32.1 percent of all Real Estate spending by 2010, with most of the increase coming at the direct expense of newspapers, real estate … Read more