Co-opitition is a fairly common occurrence in the local search biz. A lot of the big yellow pages publishers have access to a lot of advertisers but they don’t always have the right mix of traffic. While it’s no small feat to sign up a dentist in Pleasanton, CA, it’s just as hard to get […]
Startup RedBeacon, a self-described “Open Table for service businesses,” has won TechCrunch 50’s top prize and $50,000. I wasn’t at TC50 but I watched the demo pitch on video. RedBeacon is the just the latest startup to take aim at the massive local services segment. The demo was elegant and the theory behind the site […]
The handful of SEM companies that we work with at Palore make millions of calls to Small and Medium Businesses (SMBs) every year. This raises the question of whether the market for SMB online advertising is saturated, and how much room there is for growth. A good (albeit somewhat simplistic) way of answering that question […]
Finally, after a lengthy gestation period, Microhoo is official! In late July, Microsoft and Yahoo inked a 10-year deal that — if approved — combines the companies’ forces in an internet search alliance to make a concentrated run at Google, recognized by many as the key player in local search. The deal, which seems to […]
When dealing with someone, the first thing that you want to know, is who that person is. In the SMB world, this boils down to what category a local business belongs to. In the old days of the yellow pages, consumers were used to knowing search the pages for, and media companies were used to […]
The adage “time is money” often proves true in business, however, these days, most of us feel like we don’t have nearly enough of either. A few months ago, I attended an industry conference and happened to strike up a conversation with the owner of a small travel agency. As I was expressing my enthusiasm […]
Everyone seems to be chiming in with their reviews of Microsoft’s new search engine — oops, I mean “decision engine”. Can it compete with Yahoo? Will it become a verb like Google? Why’d they name it after the Chandler character on “Friends?” I don’t know if Bing will grow legs or if it’ll get lost […]
This spring, Idearc Media LLC filed for Chapter 11, planning to reorganize to get out from under massive debt, and in the process, leave thousands of stockholders holding worthless paper. Idearc's failure could easily be thought of as yet another in a long list of companies experiencing woes due to the economy, but is this the actual cause? I think someone should be asking if Verizon itself was responsible for spinning off the company with an unreasonable debt load in the first place.
Having worked in the local search space for a while, I am often asked how is it that SMBs are so slow in adopting self-serve systems in their online advertising. And indeed, in the age of Internet advertising, when anyone can purchase keywords on search engines, is there really a need for a middleman anymore? […]
When you call a business, would you rather dial a local number to talk to an actual human being or take your chances with the call-center mazes and lengthy waits frequently presented by 800 numbers? What, did I give away my answer? It’s basically an issue of human nature, and really there’s not much of […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Yahoo: We’re Moving From Web Of Pages To Web Of Objects Yahoo held a search event today in San Francisco at which the company connected the dots among a number of […]
Tomorrow, May 20 at 1 PM Eastern, Search Marketing Now presents: “Local Search Marketing: Local Listings GONE WILD!” with Michael Boland of the Kelsey Group and Bryan Simkins from FedEx. Local listings were once relatively easy—businesses targeted Yellow Pages and classified. Today, there’s a range of free online listings—from local search engines to city guides, […]
Google is rewriting the local search space. They’re now showing local search results — a map, business listings, and more — even when searchers use generic terms that don’t include a local word. This was spotted in London last week, written about on Saturday by a California florist, and spread widely yesterday when Mike Blumenthal […]
Search marketers are pretty good at claiming credit for online sales, and they’re getting better at measuring phone sales as well. However, there’s a huge amount of activity in brick-and-mortar stores, in terms of walk-in sales in the offline world, which is not properly attributed to online search. How can we get some of the […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.
For the several years Nielsen and local SEM platform provider WebVisible have done research tracking online consumer behavior related to local search. Here is our write up of the previous round of findings from the last survey (October, 2007). Over the weekend I got a preview of some of the data from the most recent […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.
By almost doubling its spending on lobbying, Microsoft managed to kill the Google-Yahoo ad deal and may also have saved itself millions of dollars on a Yahoo buyout. That’s the case made by Declan McCullough today on CNET. McCullough explains that Microsoft spent about $12-$14 million per year on lobbyists between 2005 and 2007, but […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.
In my last post, I discussed the state of the union for newspapers. As we all know, newspapers have struggled to move their businesses and revenue online, and they have struggled to do it in a way that does not cause massive disruption. This has been discussed and agonized over by a number of writers […]
Chris Pendleton posted details about new improvements made to the Live Search Local Listings Center. The Local Listing Center is the place to go to add your business to Live Search Maps. Here are the changes and additions made to the local listing center:
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.
A new report from analyst firm Borrell Associates contains fairly dire revenue projections for both local newspapers and print yellow pages ($5 billion in projected print revenue losses in five years). The newspaper angle is picked up today by the Wall Street Journal and PaidContent, which both lay out some of the numbers. The report […]
The LiveSide Blog reported that Chris Pendleton,Virtual Earth Evangelist, posted the news that Ask.com has now dropped their own mapping product for Microsoft’s Virtual Earth. Virtual Earth can now be found on Ask Maps, Ask City, and within Ask’s search results as Smart Answers. It is a shame to see Ask.com dissolve the mapping service, […]
Marchex, which has been investing heavily in the local search market, has now brought together its broad range of assets into a single PPC ad platform and network that it’s calling “AdHere.” AdHere is intended both for brands and national entities trying to reach local consumers online, as well as small businesses seeking exposure in […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.
Verizon is formally launching an ad-supported free directory assistance/voice search product in the US called 1-800-THE-INFO. It joins an increasingly crowded field that already features Google, Microsoft, and AT&T, among others. As I said yesterday in my post about the launch of a new voice search offering from ChaCha, most consumers are still unaware of […]
Human-powered search engine ChaCha launched in late 2006 to somewhat mixed reviews. It sought to entice users to search with expert guides in real time via IM chat windows. It also offered algorithmic search but the human-guided search was the hook. The concept was great but the practical experience was often uneven. In January ChaCha […]
Last week, as you know, the EU gave approval to Google’s acquisition of DoubleClick for $3.1 billion. However, the deal closed at $3.24 billion, a mere $140 million more. But Google doesn’t have to count its pennies during this recession, the company says, because its international growth, specifically in China-Asia, will help insulate the search […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.
Last Friday, shortly after the Microsoft bid for Yahoo was made public, Danny and I had an opportunity to discuss the proposed acquisition with Yusuf Mehdi, senior vice president of strategic partnerships for Microsoft. Our questions to Mehdi often returned to post-acquisition “integration” issues. I brought up local, maps, and mobile as areas where both […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.
I conducted a very informal, online Search Engine Land reader survey several weeks ago on a range of high-level topics pertaining to mobile search. The ultimate number of responses from SEL readers was a small sample of 77. Mike Blumethal, a contributor to SEL who writes the Understanding Google Maps & Yahoo Local blog, thought […]
Here’s the primary thing on my mind as we begin 2008: If we, the search/online marketing industry, don’t do a better job of helping the small business owner understand and adopt the best practices of search marketing, we are doomed to irrelevance. “Oh, but there’s no money in small businesses,” you say. Or, “Small business […]
Voice services provider CallGenie announced the acquisition of mobile content provider and ad exchange PhoneSpots. The mostly stock transaction was valued at $5.75 million and provides a range of new client relationships and capabilities to Canada-based CallGenie.
Several weeks ago, I asked readers to take a quick mobile user survey to get a snapshot of mobile search usage among Search Engine Land readers. It was a brief survey that sought only high-level information. We had 75 people respond to the survey, which I’ve presented in its entirety below. The results cannot be […]
Using an expansive definition of the marketplace, Borrell Associates says that “local online advertising” is worth $8.5 billion today. That number consists of local search, “local banners,” and local video. Banners is the biggest spending category and video the smallest. But Borrell expects local search to grow substantially to become almost 50% of the total […]
Today is the second day of SES Chicago and the first day of PubCon Vegas. Here’s a recap of session coverage out of both shows, from across the web:
Local SEM firm WebVisible and Nielsen last year surveyed U.S. consumers about their local search behavior. There were some very interesting and striking findings. For example, 51% of users were doing category searches for local businesses without a geographic modifier. Today findings from a second wave of that survey were released. The second survey is […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web.