http://evansink.com Perry Evans' blog on Local Media and other musings. Tue, 27 May 2008 17:47:23 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en I've long believed that neighborhoods represent a key ingredient in how local search and media evolves. Back around 1995, Brad Inman held a brainstorming retreat for online real estate people at his redwood forest home. I still remember Brad's passion about the importance of neighborhoods in the fabric ... http://evansink.com/2008/05/27/were-in-the-neighborhood/ 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 ... http://evansink.com/2008/05/14/mine-the-gap/ 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 ... http://evansink.com/2008/05/07/the-wagging-tail-of-local-vertical/ 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 ... http://evansink.com/2008/04/23/sleep-less-in-seattle/ 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. ... http://evansink.com/2008/04/08/stirred-not-shaken-in-vegas/ 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 ... http://evansink.com/2008/03/24/the-domain-of-intent/ 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 ... http://evansink.com/2008/03/20/guide-spotting/ 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 ... http://evansink.com/2008/03/19/well-give-you-our-best-answer/ (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 ... http://evansink.com/2008/03/07/time-to-brand-the-walking-feet/ 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 ... http://evansink.com/2008/02/28/the-geography-of-yp-valuation/