The proceedings of Where 2.0 are being covered well in local blogs by Kelsey and SEL affiliate bloggers Krasilovsky and Sterling. The juxtaposition of MapQuest v. Google & MS at this event warrants commentary. As Google announced the latest volley in the dimensional geo war v. Microsoft, MapQuest tried to pour cold water on the lovefest by highlighting how far removed these innovations still are from everyday life, and how the “real demand” is for personalization not “dimension”.

How do you interpret this - is this a Gandhi or a Dangerfield moment? Are we witnessing a game-playing exercise gone awry between west coast geek cultures with billion dollar toy budgets, or is this research just the jealous mutterings from the kid who used to control the playground whose daddy won’t buy him enough cool new toys? (more…)

search, local shopping, YP, maps | No Comments »

We’ve just launched the beta version of a brand spanking new site – localguides.com.

We think the site (and the technology and methodologies behind it) begin to lay the foundation to tackle two vexing problems in local search – how to place consumer participation into the center of the experience and, how to connect search and commentary into useful real-life planning and sharing tools.

Here’s an overview… (more…)

web 2.0, local social, local shopping, local guides, YP | 16 Comments »

At Local Matters, we’ve been working through ideation, consumer research, prototyping, and product planning for about 18 months in the area that has come to be referred to as “local social”. LocalGuides.com represents the cumulative effect of these activities, and the point of entry into a new stream of development and growth for our company.

The industry has witnessed a lot of interesting experimentation and success with user-generated content, building on the unstoppable live web experience. The increasingly engaged consumer has begun to shift their view of the Internet to a place where sharing and interaction become integral and common, and more and more expected every day. (more…)

web 2.0, local social, local shopping, local guides | No Comments »

Local Matters works in close partnership with traditional local media publishers, providing advanced technology to improve their online and mobile publishing products, and we provide a growing base of distribution through a suite of online media properties. (more…)

local guides, publishing, YP, strategy | No Comments »

Another insightful post on Tim O’Reilly’s blog, entitled “What Would Google Do?” This one is not (yet another) article on the perils of “evil” that might come from pouring more power into their hungry vortex. It’s not really about Google, even.

Rather it is a challenge to apply the model we’re coming to know as Web 2.0 to a broader reinvention agenda - using traditional services (phones, banks, insurance…) as cases-in-point.

(more…)

web 2.0, 411, YP, strategy | No Comments »

There is some interesting commentary floating around triggered by the research from Accenture and Kelsey’s analysis. It’s serendipitous as I just spent a couple of hours with a friend who was founder of Abacus and now - it’s smarter reinvention, NextAction - talking about how the catalog sector is dealing with the same reality.

While two-thirds (67 percent) of survey respondents said they prefer to make purchases in physical stores respondents also said they research product features online (69 percent), compare prices online before shopping in a physical store (68 percent) or use the Internet to locate items online before going to a store to purchase (58 percent).

So, there is a clear pattern in product shopping - users are finding value and empowerment in researching the best products and prices online, across many consumable product categories. The other reality is that lack of a quality connection between that research and the “best and most convenient place” to buy locally. I do like the innovation happening among the “gap-fillers” - a deserving nod to folks like StepUp and NearbyNow, but I think it’s really only addressing a portion of the “bigger picture” in Local Shopping. Let me explain. (more…)

social, local social, local shopping | No Comments »

Ok, so this one is tongue in cheek, and it’s probably enough twitter chatter. But, hey…

From SearchEngineLand…

Many search marketers know Nick Wilson, especially for his role in having founded Threadwatch. In case you haven’t been keeping up, Nick and his wife Ivana are having baby. Like now, right now. Nick’s twittering it live here. Barry and I are pretty sure this will be the first birth to ever hit Twitter.

For the unfamiliar, no worries, it’s primarily a text media, not video.

All to say, the web is brimming full of conversation, and find the ways to align local conversations with well intentioned and designed local shopping propositions is really important stuff to figure out over the coming years. We all know events like new babies are golden local marketing events, and people are talking.

social, local social, IM | No Comments »

Picked up by Praized, and noted by Scoble - the growing “Fear of Google” (FOG) is causing much consternation in the advertising industry. The market share dominance of Google strikes fear into the hearts of the “rest of the channel”. And while Google executes, Yahoo is stumbling and Microsoft just seems to reinforce that embarrassing Apple commercial persona. So, the unthinkable is happening - onlookers are cheering the notion of Microsoft acquiring Yahoo. What to think? (more…)

search, publishing, strategy | 1 Comment »