The Local Onliner reports today:
Gannett, via its Planet Discover subsidiary, says it will start providing its newspapers and TV stations with search marketing help… In the last six months, newspapers have begun to really embrace search and extending their marketplace to the small businesses, he [Planet Discover Head Terry Millard] notes.
The end goal, Millard adds, is to expand the advertiser base. While Planet Discover’s local search guides compete with Yellow Pages, “it isn’t all Yellow Pages,” he emphasizes. There is a layer of media below that: the community shoppers, things like that. There is a huge market of businesses that aren’t going to spend $3,500 a year,” the average for Yellow Pages buys. “But they’ll spend $100 a month.”
Millard says the effort starts with Gannett, where Planet Discover has already launched search efforts for it 110 newspapers, and is now gearing up to convert its 21 TV stations. Other Planet Discover clients are also being asked to participate. They are mostly newspapers but also include some verticals such as travel.
It will be interesting to watch how this plays out at our local Gannett outlet, the Burlington Free Press.
Peter Krasilovsky packs a lot into his ten brief trends from 2006 for local online. Nearly each of his points supports Front Porch Forum’s position, so check out his full list. Some snippets:
Google and Yahoo have… 70 percent [of local search]. All the others belong in a subset. But the subset, of course, can be lucrative too.
How fast will Google and Yahoo migrate beyond local search, impacting classifieds, brand/display and Yellow Pages. It ought to take awhile.
Sites that protect local positions should get some traction.
Google-style, self-serve [ad sales] solutions will creep up on the industry faster than expected.
We’ll see a lot of localizing [from national advertisers] in 2007.
What surprises me is that the Yellow Pages companies haven’t bothered to buy [local social networks, and ratings/review sites]. Yet.
Also from The Local Onliner today, an interesting quote from an outgoing R.H. Donnelly executive, Simon Greenman:
Yellow Pages “[p]ublishers are well-positioned to become local search providers. But they’ll need to become much broader, with classifieds, promotional information and service directories. They’ll need to become more consumer-centric, with social networking, merchant recommendations and other features.”
I’m not sure how compelling all these features are when tacked onto a local search site. Front Porch Forum‘s approach is to build the most engaging local social networking service available, then integrate commercial features to add value for our members and pay the bills. That is, design the service for neighbors, and only treat these good people as consumers when and where it makes sense.
What are the most common categories for what people are looking for in (1) the Yellow Page and (2) local online search? Same things? Apparently not, according to The Local Onliner:
Just this week, Ask released the Top 10 food, music and business search lookups for its revised AskCity service. Here’s how AskCity’s Business Search compares to The Yellow Pages Association’s Top 300 categories:
1. Massage (#148)
2. Shopping mall (NA)
3. Hospitals (#9)
4. Family doctor (#2)
5. Churches (#22)
6. Plumber (#10)
7. Florist (#16)
8. Police department (NA)
9. General practice attorneys (#6)
10. Auto repair (#4)
The top ten Yellow Pages categories (from source above):
1. Restaurants (Fast Food & Nonspecific) 1,341 (millions of references)
2. Physician & Surgeons 1,173
3. Automobile Parts 567
4. Automobile Repair 449
5. Pizza 358
6. Attorneys 312
7. Automobile Dealers 28
8. Dentists 251
9. Hospitals 245
10. Plumber 244
Front Porch Forum doesn’t have enough data yet to be meaningful, but it will be interesting to see over time what our members are looking up in our message archives and via our sponsored links (forthcoming).
Zvents received $7M in funding in November. More:
San Mateo, CA (PRNewswire) November 7, 2006 — Zvents, the leading local event search technology firm, announced today that it has secured $7 million in series A financing led by VantagePoint Venture Partners… The funding will be used to expand Zvents’ geographic coverage to major metro areas across the United States, and to grow its technical and business staff.
Founded in March 2005… the company has developed the Zvents Media Platform… that provides next-generation local search and targeted advertising capabilities for local web publishers… The platform was launched with the San Jose Mercury News in July 2006, and has since rolled out with the Denver Post, Miami Herald, and Contra Costa Times. Forthcoming 2006 metro launches include Boston and greater Los Angeles.
Further…
“Local is a huge growth area on the Internet today, for both relevant content and targeted advertising,” said David Carlick, Managing Director at VantagePoint Venture Partners. “Zvents’ search, content, and advertising solutions are enormously valuable to media firms looking for ways to become more relevant to their audience, and better monetize their content.”
Ghost of Midnight is an online journal about fostering community within neighborhoods, with a special focus on Front Porch Forum (FPF). My wife, Valerie, and I founded FPF in 2006... read more