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There she sits, looking very much like, well, a sitting duck. Man, can we relate - perhaps we’ve found our mascot!
Some fun facts about the short-tailed albatross:
For fun, I put up a straw poll on the site before the Kelsey Conference asking the question “If the Yellow Pages print business were an animal, on which one would you put the lipstick”. The choices were the two obvious politically inspired images of lipstick on pitbulls and pigs, but I added a third the chameleon!
Notionally, I was asking people to comment on the print business as being “on its way down, “capable of fighting back hard” or “adaptable to the future”.
The results (very unscientific!):
Put another way, almost a 50-50 vote between print being on an irreversible downward trajectory down versus having more life than you’d think.
To me, that sums up the sentiment in the Kelsey Group Conference.
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?
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.
Greg Sterling triggered an exchange on his blog last week - the dialog centered on “what would the impact of a US recession be on local online advertising?”
I offered up two possible scenarios, described below. I thought it might be interesting to turn this back over to you all. Which direction do you think makes sense (of these two choices)? You can answer in the poll widget on the right.
1. Recession would be a great catalyst to growth in interactive spending:
In the reasonable recession scenario of tightened ad budgets of local businesses, the appeal of performance-based models is high. I can therefore see this to be a trigger to trial.
Post recession, the print ad business may no longer be the beneficiary of the rebound, this could this just become the catalyst for scaled interactive media spend, to the possible detriment of print budget allocations.
2. Recession would drive a retreat to known, proven models, keeping print alive and well:
In a recession, the need to secure your existing base of business may cause businesses to retreat to “safe havens”. Tried and true ad products are fortified against offers to just “take a little of your budget and try this”.
When small businesses have survival challenging worries, change is often slow. The perceived risk and distraction factors of interactive advertising will cause the SME to retrench. Despite the intellectual argument of low risk and measurability, businesses will simply slow their pace of trying new things.
Greg’s answer, in case you are curious, was:
2. is psychologically probable but 1 is more “rational.”
Proof positive that he was a lawyer in a prior life ;)
The news of FAST being acquired by Microsoft comes as no real surprise. There has been speculation for a couple of years. The search engine company, after a growth tear, stumbled financially last year, and has been operating as a trimmed down company for most of 2007. A 40% price premium had to be too hard for FAST shareholders to turn down.
I’ve had the pleasure of working with FAST as a business partner for ~3 years. It’s a quality company, with a search engine technology and talent pool that is truly world class. The past year has seen the loss of some great talent from the company, but they remain with a strong foundation, and an impressive enterprise and publishing client base.
How should a FAST local media client look at this?
A Google search on “darwinism” delivers wikipedia ironically into the top search result.
The blogsphere is abuzz this morning with the announced movement of Google into the world of Wikipedia. With the posting of a new project known as “knol”, Google signals its intent to own the space currently being dominated by Wikipedia. Presumably sending that many users to a foundation just seemed too darn sub-optimal (or “break stuff” as Kedrosky labels it).
The stakes are pretty meaningful. October stats are excerpted from comScore below (more…)
the three clusters of SME growth
Well over 10 years ago, Peter Wallace, one of the senior executives from “ITT World Directories” (two generations in private equity years), presented a cocktail napkin picture which has stuck with me ever since. He described a way of looking at the SME market which I think is still valuable. (more…)
As picked up on and explained well by Greg Sterling, Google is building out yet another dimension of it’s local content gathering juggernaut with a new “Business Referral Representative” program. Original story: gSpy.
This continues the reinforcement of how Google Maps is being positioned to be a rich gathering place for local content. A combination of content strategies are in play - traffic-for-content distribution deals as well as original content collection. The aggregation of content around places - locations, businesses, addresses - is forming in a systematic march.
Take a look at what Google will now pay to collect via this new collector network… (more…)
