Bill Slawski has an extensive post about a new Google patent application pertaining to local, which factors in other information in determining location ranking vs. the “centroid” point of a geographic area. (See my Urban Mapping post re the “centroid problem.”) Bill unpacks the Google patent application: The patent describes how it might associate a …
Both Google Maps and Windows Live Local have “click to call” (not yet PPCall) embedded now in their products. And several Internet yellow pages are using it. But there’s some debate and confusion about whether it’s a truly meaningful feature. Not surprisingly, eStara (a click to call vendor), has put out a press release showing …
Here’s the WSJ (sub req’d) on the deal: The agreement with Verizon is YouTube’s first major deal with a wireless carrier as it tries to extend the reach of its Internet video content beyond personal computers. YouTube, which was acquired by the Mountain View, Calif., Internet company for $1.65 billion, has attracted a huge audience …
Barry Diller and IAC are going to launch something called “AskCity” next week, which will be a consolidated local offering under the Ask brand: The new Web-based city guides, due out on December 4, will be followed later in December by a redesign of IAC’s Ask.com search service, a small but fast-growing rival to Google …
Google has reached a settlement in its copyright suit in Belgium with with news photographers and journalists. The NY Times (reg req’d) carries the Bloomberg story: Google, the world’s most-used Internet search engine, reached a settlement with Belgian photographers and journalists yesterday in a copyright dispute over how Google’s news service links to newspaper content. …
Believe it or not there are still people out there who are skeptical that the Internet is having a real impact in the “yellow pages” space. New survey data — albeit from an online panel — should silence those skeptics: Local online marketing firm WebVisible conducted an online survey this past August regarding Internet usage …
While Google is currently the undisputed king (making others the queen, prince, baron, duke and viscount) of search that’s not necessarily going to automatically translate into mobile — the next big opportunity. Indeed, mobile is potentially disruptive (ring the bell!) of online market share. GigaOm’s Katie Fehrenbacher has a good post on Google and mobile …
I had lunch last Friday with Ian White, CEO of Urban Mapping. The genesis of Urban Mapping is a fascinating story of perseverance and timing — starting from a printed map of New York. At any rate, Urban Mapping is a technology and B2B data provider that is collecting and normalizing huge amounts of local …
Rumored for some time, Yahoo! is apparently close to closing a deal with six newspaper groups. According the WSJ: Yahoo Inc. is close to a deal with six major newspaper groups representing more than a hundred newspapers that would allow them to sell listings on Yahoo’s HotJobs online classified service, according to people familiar with …
Deciding to avoid the arms race that Google and MSFT are engaged in around dynamic and 3-D mapping, Yahoo! has taken a more pragmatic approach: Satellite maps are fun, but online map users want features that get them where they are going. More than half (52 percent) of online U.S. adults said that they would …
