An interesting article in the Business 2.0 finale this month about Marchex.
Marchex CEO Russell Horowitz is launching websites for thousands of cities, big and small. The play? To beat Microsoft, Google, and Yahoo to the punch in connecting businesses to nearby customers.
With smart people, powerful tools, and hundreds of millions of dollars behind it, I’m sure that this effort will produce something of value… in fact it already has. But I wonder about “soul”…
Marchex is having a hard time selling its vision. Since so many of its sites sat idle for so long, packed with nothing but ads, Marchex looked like a giant domain play except with much higher overhead. But the company has been developing new technologies. And in June, Marchex lit up 100,000 of its sites – with another 150,000 or so to go – changing them into destinations with a smattering of content and reviews. The goal is to create sites that, as Horowitz puts it, “have a soul.”
In May 2006, for example, Marchex bought a review site called OpenList, a local guide that pulls together reviews for restaurants, hotels, and local attractions. The company then developed software that crawls the Web, sorts out duplicate content, and then generates a review. Look up San Francisco’s Hotel Triton on BayAreaHotels.com, for instance, and the software-generated write-up reads like a Zagat guide: “What travelers said they loved: ‘The location,’ ‘the staff,’ and ‘the room.’ Guests can enjoy yoga and other local activities.” Users add their own reviews too.
Hmm…
This is a compelling program and Front Porch Forum will participate…
Voices for the Lake Brainstorming Forums
-Tuesday, Oct. 30th – 9:30 to 2:30 @ ECHO
-Monday, Nov. 12th – 9:30 to 2:30 @ ECHO
-Saturday, Nov. 17th – 9:30 to 2:30 @ Champlain College’s Hauke Family Campus Center600,000 people CAN make a difference! How do you get thousands of people talking about and, more importantly, doing something for the health of Lake Champlain? Participate in the Voices for the Lake Brainstorming Forums and help set the course for engaging the public through new Internet technologies.
-EXPLORE emergent technologies, including wikis, blogs, and serious eGames
-INTERACT with technology industry leaders from Champlain College Emergent Media Center, IBM and Google.
-VOTE ELECTRONICALLY on your forum’s strongest ideas
-COLLABORATE on stewardship-themed Internet media and ECHO exhibits, website content, and school programs
-FREE lunch and parking
-ARTICIPATE in as many forums as you can – and spread the wordPlease RSVP: Steffen Parker, Voices for the Lake Facilitator: sparker@vpaonline.org / 802.864.1848×135 http://www.echovermont.org
Interesting article in the New York Times by Louise Story today about how varied website traffic stats are… depends on who’s counting and how.
Online advertising is expected to generate more than $20 billion in revenue this year, more than double the $9.6 billion it represented as recently as 2004. Nobody doubts that the figure will grow — particularly as advertisers hone their techniques for aiming messages to particular consumers — but the question remains how much the clashing traffic figures will hold the market back.
Again from Greg Sterling about CitySquares…
The Boston-based local site has added many familiar “Web 2.0″ features and introduced a new design, which I like on first blush. It offers more participation, photos (with Flickr), profiles, events (Zvents), local news (Topix), Virtual Earth map integration and personalization… Nonetheless it’s a nice redesign, with clear navigation and lots of features built around neighborhoods, which is the kind of detail that locals want.
Greg Sterling writes today about social networks as a way to cut through the tangle of information on the web…
Community is something of an antidote to these phenomena. Community has definite limitations and flaws but it also offers a way to navigate the sea of too many choices online.
We’ve been talking about this with Front Porch Forum for some time. Seems like there are two kinds of people in the world… those who think there are two kinds of people and those who don’t. 😉 Whoops…
Another two kinds… people who live and breathe online and those who use it as a tool when needed. Advanced users jump all over the growing mass of online services to find whatever, whenever. The rest of us would just as soon ask some real and familiar/trusted people… “does anybody know where I can get X?”
Reminds me of the old male-female stereotype about asking for driving directions.
A new Colorado-based service…
Zwaggle is an online community for parents to share with other parents. Using our points based sharing system, parents spend less money, time and resources providing for their children.
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