It seems like everyone is excited about the new iPhone that was introduced by Apple on Monday (many people are actually calling it the Jesusphone) but I think everyone’s missing the big picture.
What triggered those thoughts was yesterday’s blog post from Mashable, discussing what was really revolutionary about the new iPhone:
And, The Really Big Thing About The New iPhone Is… GPS. Global Positioning System . Geo-anything. Location based services. (…) Why hasn’t all this happened before? Three words: ease of use. While you could have done all these things for the Symbian More»

Labels: Apple, GPS, iPhone, Local Search, mobile web

Techcrunch reports on a rumor this morning that would have Google either buy Skype from eBay or Google partner with Skype. According to the site,
“Skype, acquired in late 2005 for $3.1 billion, has been a financial albatross around Ebay’s neck. eBay removed Skype co-founder and CEO Niklas Zennstrom in October 2007, reportedly due to frustration at the financial performance of Skype. Ebay also negotiated down the huge earnout due to Skype stockholders and took a $936 million one-time loss around the transaction. It’s clear that eBay wants to either unload Skype, or significantly drive performance. More»

Labels: eBay, Local Search, skype

Was reading this morning a great analysis by Mathew Ingram about a New York Times article describing the way “young people” get/read their political news. It’s clearly more and more about word of mouth and your social graph.
As Mathew says: “It’s not that there is anything earth-shatteringly new in the piece, mind you. But I think it does a great job of describing how digital “word of mouth” — in other words, social networking of all kinds including Twitter, IM, Facebook and so on — has become a dominant means of news delivery for young people in More»

Labels: Local Search, social media

Here’s a roundup of the best search/marketing posts during November. This summary was compiled by Matt McGee, SEO Specialist, Marchex.
Social Media

Muhammad/SEL: It’s The (Other) Algorithm, Stupid! Understanding DiggRank
Muhammad/Search Engine Land: The Social Media Manual: Read Before You Play
Jennifer/Search Engine Guide: How Do You Value Social Media?
Todd/Stone Interactive: 9 Simple Ways for Small Businesses to Leverage Social Media
Pat/Lonely Marketer: 7 Ideas For Social Media And Business
David/Search Engine Guide: 5 Ways Small Business Can Benefit From Social Media/Networking Sites
Josh/hyku: Starting More»

Labels: Local Search, Search Engine Marketing, Search Engine Optimization, social media, Web Analytics

AT&T held an analyst conference yesterday and Ray Wilkins, Group President - Diversified Businesses, was presenting the “advertising and search” portion of the allocution. The presentation shows that YellowPages.com currently generates approximately $550M in revenues and that AT&T is aiming at more than $1B in revenues in 2010 for the site. They also expect a good revenue lift from advertising appearing in U-verse, their interactive television product.
Other interesting data points include:

Print and More»

Labels: Local Search, Mobile

Just a short note to introduce myself. I’m the latest addition to the WebGuild blogger team. My areas of expertise are local search and social media. Hope you enjoy my contributions to the site!
My official bio:Sebastien Provencher is Co-Founder & VP, Product Management at Praized Media, a newly-funded stealth start-up operating in the local/social space. He has more than 10 years experience in local search, interactive entertainment and online media. From 1999 to 2007, Sebastien played an instrumental role in formulating Yellow Pages Group’s online strategy, notably developing their most successful More»

Labels: Local Search, social media, WebGuild

Another Googler has moved on. This time is it Dominic Preuss. He is moving on to Meetup, an event listing and networking website. At Google he worked in local ads. However, at MeetUp he will be a BIG CHEESE, VP Marketplace. He’ll be helping the company to create a new stream of revenue by coordinating sponsors with Meetups, and earning revenue from sponsors as well. Hmmm… If you are Googler that is leaving or know of one leaving or about to leave let us More»

Labels: Advertising, Local Search

TechCrunch is reporting that Judy’s Book a Craigslist alternative for local deals will be shutting down. The company raised $10M in venture money and most of the staff has been let go.
Judy’s Book started off as a community driven review site for local businesses, but changed it’s focus in 2006 when the original model looked to be failing. The company de-focused on local reviews, and went more towards the shopping angle and local deals.
Despite the fact that Craigslist is thriving well, the local review and search vertical has been a tough one. Intuit shut down More»

Labels: Local Search, Microsoft, Yahoo, Yelp

We are very excited at WebGuild to announce the launch of our Social Networking Community exclusively for Web Professionals.
It’s free and allows you to connect with over 30,000 other web professionals.

Get Started!

Complete profileSign up for an account and add as much or as little information about your self.
Join groups and submit and answer questions.Join groups in your subject area(s) of interest and get and share knowledge with peers via our online discussion board.
Share and promote sites working on.Discover, submit, and rate sites you’re working on or just More»

Labels: Local Search, Social Search, web 2.0, WebGuild

Google has acquired high resolution aerial photography camera company to boost Google’s mapping service. Google’s mapping technology power popular products such as Google Earth, Google Maps and it is a key piece of Google Local and Google Mobile services.
More»

Labels: Local Search, Maps, Mobile, Mobile Search, Search Tools