January 2011
19 posts
Yellowbook Layoff
I continue to hear rumors and rumblings of big changes in the yellow pages industry, and it seems like almost anything could happen in terms of restructuring, mergers and acquisitions. I just learned of a layoff at Yellowbook over the weekend — according to the news report they are saying they’ll cut 70 jobs, nationwide. […] Related posts: * What’s Happening In Yellow Pages Land? Perhaps A...
Univeral Business Listing (UBL) User Conference
I’m looking forward to attending the Universal Business Listing (“UBL”) User Conference today in Charlotte, NC. It was particularly exciting to visit with friends such as Mike Blumenthal and to get to meet Sebastien Provencher for the first time in person! I don’t know yet if I’ll have an opportunity to post updates on the […] No related posts. http://dlvr.it/F3YdC
University Introduces Foursquare Collegiate Badges
Texas A&M University has just launched the Collegiate Badge program on Foursquare, and since I was in College Station earlier last week for a family celebration, I thought I’d check it out. I feel a little shiver of pride that my alma mater is the third university after Harvard and Stanford to launch an official partnership with […] Related posts: * Foursquare Heat Maps...
SuperMedia & Dex One Layoffs
A few people internally at SuperMedia’s Superpages have pinged me this week to let me know of a larger layoff that happened yesterday at the company – reportedly 300 or more employees, primarily in the Internet Sales Division, were layed-off. I’m surprised Dallas Morning News hasn’t reported on it. Dex One is apparently also planning to lay off […] Related posts: * What’s Happening In Yellow...
Sudbury Hydro Inc Merger? Be Careful What Your...
I find this slightly amusing – looking over my Google Analytics for this blog, I ran across someone who’d typed into Google the keyword phrase, “writing a memo to employees advising them of a merge”. That’s not all that surprising since I’ve been writing about a theoretical merger between AT&T, SuperMedia, and Dex One yellow pages […] Related posts: * Poor Taste: Lay Off 100s Of...
Squeezing PageRank from Photos & Images
I’ve written a number of times about how one can leverage images to get more promotional value and links. Here’s another example today, from a blog post on 1800RECYCLING.com: Ten Recycled Ship Houses. The writer of this post contacted me a while back to get permission to use one of my photos (of a house […] No related posts. http://dlvr.it/Dkzbp
Google’s Earth Art Logo
Google Israel has a logo for celebrating Tu Bishvat. Barry Schwartz explains that the Tu Bishvat (פרוייקט ההר הירוק) holiday is known as the “New Year of the Trees”, and to observe it many people will plant new trees or donate trees in Israel. (The associated Google search for the logo goes to “Green Mountain […] Related posts: * Google’s Happy Birthday Logo * Have Google Logos Jumped The...
Foursquare Heat Maps
This is a pretty cool graphic interface I came across thanks to Giovanni Gallucci — it’s for checking out your Foursquare usage data: Where Do You Go. It displays your checkins using heat maps: The Google Maps mashup was built using Foursquare’s API, Python, and the Google APP Engine. I think it likely works better in Chrome […] No related posts. http://dlvr.it/DZDKQ
Australian YP Telstra Fighting As Legal Underdog...
The Aussie yellow pages company, Telstra, is continuing to fight hard to protect their claim that yellow pages business directories can be copyrighted. Judges found last year that directories were no longer covered by copyright because their creation and maintenance was computerized. Copyright of phonebook directory information has always been on shaky ground, since facts themselves generally...
Yellow Pages Argues Seattle Law Limiting...
As you may be aware, Seattle passed an ordinance in October which required yellow pages print directory companies to pay for an annual license and to allow consumers to opt-out of receiving print yellow pages phonebooks from being delivered to their properties. The Yellow Pages Association filed a motion in federal court last week, seeking […] Related posts: * Yellow Pages Opt-Out Not...
City Centroids Replaced By Outlines In Google...
I’ve often mentioned how Google Maps/Places has used distance from city centroids as a major ranking factor. Indeed, Google still mentions how distance is a local ranking factor (most recently they stated this in a LatLong blog post on how local search ranking works). However, there is some compelling evidence to show that they’ve become […] No related posts. http://dlvr.it/DVctV
Trust Seals May Be Super Local Ranking Factors
Over on SEM Clubhouse this morning I posted an article about how online trust seals could increase conversions for local businesses. That proposition is not all that controversial, when you connect the dots. Lots of research finds support for the idea that trust seals increase consumer confidence for online retailers — and online retailers need this, […] Related posts: * Thoughts On Local...
The iPhone Comes To Verizon Finally!
So, my prediction that the iPhone was coming to Verizon has finally panned out as the official Verizon Wireless iPhone page is now live! The CDMA iPhone was confirmed at a press conference hosted by Verizon at the Lincoln Center in New York today. The planned arrival comes just a hair late for me. As […] Related posts: * Will Verizon Get The iPhone? A Former Insider’s Prediction...
Local Search Technology “Patent Troll” Expands...
A recent post by a member on WebmasterWorld alerted me that GeoTag is widening their local search technology lawsuits to include many more companies. WebmasterWorld sharply limits forum members from mentioning particular links, but I think the member was referring to this GeoTag Inc. v. Royal Purple Inc. et al patent suit. The WebmasterWorld forum […] http://dlvr.it/Cs1bP
Poor Taste: Lay Off 100s Of Employees, Then Write...
In a blog that SuperMedia operates to provide advice and information for businesses, they published this surreal post on “Employee Retention During a Corporate Restructure” at the end of December. SuperMedia has been laying-off employees in droves over the past two years, as they struggled through revenue decline, heavy debts, Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization, and subsequent […]...
McAfee Labs Lists Geolocation Services As Top...
On December 28th, McAfee Labs unveiled their 2011 Threat Predictions Report, and they’ve listed Geolocation Services as one of the top targets for cybercriminal activity in 2011. Geolocation services particularly include services involving check-in activities which publish your location. Geolocation services include Facebook now, as well as Twitter, Foursquare and Gowalla. From my perspective,...
R.I.P. Bookmarking Services
The year 2010 may have marked the demise of social media bookmarking services. Quite a few bookmark sharing services were discontinued last year. Simpy, Gnolia, and Backflip were just some of the best-known ones. In their heyday, some of these services may have been considered to be the next big thing in online social media […] http://dlvr.it/CjgvX
What’s Happening In Yellow Pages Land? Perhaps A...
Back in September I predicted a merger between SuperMedia and Dex One. However, there’ve since been other developments and rumors coming out of these yellow pages companies which lead me to suggest a possible “trifecta” — a three-way acquisition/merger could be in the works between AT&T’s Yellow Pages, SuperMedia, and Dex One. These three companies […] http://dlvr.it/Cdw3n
Happy New Year’s Day 2011!
Google’s “doodle” logo for New Year’s Day today has the “OOGL” of the logo replaced with Roman numerals for two-thousand-and-eleven, and the background of it is full of fireworks going off: Though not as well known, the letter “G” was also used as a shorthand Roman numeral in the Middle Ages to represent four-hundred, and […] http://dlvr.it/CTQkP