I’m bummed that I had to bow out of this year’s Where 2.0 conference; I had been slated to speak, and had a list of people to meet and sessions I wanted to hear. One of the most interesting sessions, moderated by Greg Sterling, was on the “monetization of maps and mashups“.

Following a blogger’s coverage of the session, I was really tweaked by one comment, roughly paraphrased by blogger John McKerrell, in attendance. From Skyhook, Jed Rice:

“When we started trying doing more local targeting and being able to insert a lat/lon.We had to flood adsense with a lot of local information to get any information from them at all. We had a click-through rate of 7/8/12% as if you can position ads around a relevant map you get a higher click-through. But there’s a problem that there isn’t enough ads to serve, requires a huge inventory to serve at such a granular level.”

This is a pretty important observation.

Experience is beginning to demonstrate that AdSense does not offer much hyper-local ad inventory.

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mobile search, maps, local mobile | 1 Comment »

It’s encouraging to see Kelsey Group take a lead role in sponsoring the industry dialog on the verticalization of local search.

We all have our own definitions of vertical search - most commonly we align around large shopping niches such as automotive, real estate and A&E. However, of late, we’re seeing this expand beyond “classified verticals” into key life event or considered purchase segments such as attorneys (avvo), weddings (wedding channel) and new homes (zillow).

why are YP’s vertically challenged?

Why are publishers watching the development of local vertical search from the wrong side of the podium?

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search, local shopping, publishing, strategy, local vertical | 4 Comments »

I’m guessing a bunch of you are heading to Seattle for the upcoming Kelsey Conference, Drilling Down on Local ‘08. If you’re undecided, take this as a strong recommendation - this will be one of the top events of 2008 for local search industry vets and newbies alike.

Unfortunately, I have to be in Europe. However, I thought you’d enjoy seeing a handy Guide that was created by a Seattle native, to give you an orientation beyond the hotel walls. It’s kind of a cool way to preview our local social beta site, Guidespot.com.

Click on the widget to the left, and you’ll see it.

Hope you enjoy, and feel free to pass it along - even better, make your own!

social, local guides | No Comments »

Opening the Yellow Pages Association annual convention was Chairman Dave Swanson, Association President Neg Norton and an impersonator of Gloria Estafan. Damn, I wish they had picked Rodney Dangerfield!

Hats off to Dave and Neg for two stirring performances.

I think the tone that Dave brought to the convention was strong. He demonstrated a genuine grasp and frank recognition of the gravity of the challenge facing the industry (and his company) balanced with a strong conviction that the channel advantage can be built upon for a “center stage” position. Read the rest of this entry »

YP | 3 Comments »

The NY Times does an interesting piece on (yet) another enhancement to the Google Search Engine Result Page (SERP). The article, entitled “A New Tool from Google Alarms Sites” profiles a new “search within a site” box that has begun appearing, unannounced, into the SERP.

Add another emerging example to the growing list of “third page / second click” creep.

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local shopping, third page, strategy | 1 Comment »

Greg Sterling previewed our new 3-week old beta of GuideSpot.com in his blog yesterday, with an appreciated nod “Over time the site could evolve into something very interesting and valuable.” At Local Matters, we certainly would agree. Here’s a little more on the site, and how we see it positioned in the social-vertical-search triangle of local.

Clearly, the growth momentum is there for social participation - consumers are more comfortable with self-expression and interaction every day. Sites that align with this trend generally outperform those that center on search, and create more fundamental pull and engagement. When we looked at this space, we centered our energy on the concept of a consumer’s list at the core of a social engine.

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social, local shopping, local guides, publishing, OpenSocial | No Comments »

I was very pleased to see John Battelle exposing the “second click” issue from the pulpit at SES, and in his influential SearchBlog. If you have done any occasional reading through my lowly blog, you’ll recognize the concept of the “third page of search“. It’s the same thing - the issue surrounding Google’s shift within its Search Result Page to bias users towards it’s own version of vertical search experiences.

Of late, this issue has become increasingly visible with Google’s blatant behavior of pushing Google owned/operated “third page search services” into top position on the results page. In local we recognize it with the 10-list box, in video you see it with YouTube bias, in real estate we see it with Google’s home search, in auto, we’re starting to see Google vehicle search. With Google’s recently announced “knol“, you see it’s version of Wikipedia in formation.

Because I’m lazy/busy as heck these days, I’ve copied my reply in John’s blog (down below), to give you a bit of added perspective on how I see this in-formation battle.

This is a really important one, and it’s fascinating because - above all else - it is the closest thing I have seen to a shift which creates an opening for Google to be truly challenged. It demonstrates their hunger/greed pushing them to mess with the fundamental trust (and entrenched identity) with consumers - the trust to put the “best answers” at the top, and the derivative belief that Google won’t push product in front of me.

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web 2.0, search, third page | No Comments »

(photo credit)

It has become painfully clear that the “market at large” has a narrow and deep seated view of YP as the consumer’s fingers walking through a print directory. To me, it’s becoming a severe messaging problem - for the industry.

I would suggest that it just might be the right time for the industry to ditch the fingers, and introduce the feet! The power -and the realities - of the scaled local sales channel are completely missing in the story. This is at the heart of a tremendous misconception about the prospects for reinvention amongst the “YP media companies”.

If we’re ever going to get through to this audience, it has better be a simple re-messaging. You can’t help but grimace when you listen to this kind of vacant conversation with sweeping prognostications about the value of YP.

Try as we may to show how the usage and ROI of the print books protect it from decline, we’re fighting an uphill battle; with people who control the message ready to dismiss the reality of “normal everyday consumer usage“. Industry messaging should consider focusing on “business messaging” and mothballing the “print brand” message.

YP | No Comments »

It’s important to think geographically when you assess the current state of YP industry turmoil. A few observations might be useful when trying to align the conflicting signs of growth in some geographies with an incredibly bearish financial profile of US publishers. “Exporting” the US stock market behavior really needs some navigational aid.

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YP, strategy | 1 Comment »

I debated using an image from the infamous Monty Python scene of “I’m not dead yet”, instead of Foucault’s Pendulum. The pendulum won, not just because it’s more umm, tasteful, but because I think the message of “swinging pendulums over a moving earth” is a great illustration for what’s happening in YP right now.

Swinging against the momentum of a grim stock market reaction to mounting evidence of print YP usage decline, comes two timely industry news items that squeeze in between the toughest ever financial reporting season and the upcoming YPA annual convention.
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YP, strategy | No Comments »