Here is a recap of posts from last week, in case you missed any. Click below to read each post in full.

Angie’s List Adds First ‘National’ Vertical: Classic and Custom Cars

Following the success of eBay Motors with special classic and custom car restoration verticals, other sites have pitched their own tents to get a piece of the $2 billion annual business, including AutoTrader and The New York Times.  Now comes Angie’s List. (read more…)

Happy Droid Day (and Recommended Reading)

Nov. 6 has been highly anticipated within gadget geek circles over the past few weeks, as the date of the public release of Motorola’s Droid. It is made by Motorola, runs on Verizon’s network, and is the first to be powered by the newest release (2.0) of Google’s Android operating system. And by the way, it looks pretty sleek. I haven’t touched one yet but plan to get my hands on it soon. (read more…)

Village Voice Rebrands National Network; Focuses on Cross Media

Village Voice Media, the large media company that includes 14 alternative weeklies, is rebranding its national network, which represents 50 alt weekly titles, as the name shifts from Ruxton Media to Voice Media Group. As part of the rebranding, it is also refocusing national advertisers on its cross media appeal, which delivers entertainment-centric young urbanites via its print properties, 100 online destination sites and verticals, e-mail and text messages. (read more…)

The Angry Plumber: ‘Don’t Misappropriate My Online Listing!’ 

A flurry of business lead services have cropped up, each a variation on the model that has been successfully developed by ServiceMagic and others. They basically provide a directory, information, leads and marketing services. One of the new crop of lead services is HelpHive in Seattle, which recently launched and was profiled here. (read more…)

MSN’s Cyrus Krohn: The New Local Focus

Microsoft’s MSN has been a good hodgepodge that gets 100 million users a month. But it hasn’t had a serious redo for 10 years. So the question posed to a new team brought in to redo the site was: How do you make the site stand out and really help users? (read more…)

Marchex Dives Into Self-Serve

Self-serve ad solutions aren’t a major part of the ad universe today. A recent BIA/Kelsey survey found few companies selling more than 10 percent of their SMB advertising via online. But self-serve meets the needs of certain online-oriented categories. And for economic reasons, of course — they are far cheaper to execute than premise sales — they remain the Holy Grail for pushing SMB sales. (read more…)

IPhone: Lots of Apps, We Get It

Apple announced its latest app milestone today; crossing the six-digit mark. The previous milestone was 85,000 during the Q4 earnings announcement last month. It’s clear that app development is accelerating: I just wonder how press-worthy these milestones will continue to be until Apple falls back to the McDonald’s-esque “billions and billions served.” (read more…)

ComScore: Smartphones Up, Touchscreens Way Up

ComScore has released data that show smartphones in the U.S. now total 33.8 million units — a 63 percent year-over-year increase. But the highlight of the report was that touchscreen devices outpace even this with 159 percent year-over-year growth to 23.8 million units. (read more…)

Millennial: Agencies Hot for Mobile

Fresh off its monthly SMART report, mobile ad network Millennial Media released a report today that reveals advertiser sentiments towards mobile marketing. Based on a survey of ad agencies; CPG, Retail, Entertainment, Travel and Restaurant categories are expected to be the top sources of mobile ad spending in 2010. (read more…)

Yell Wins Over Lenders, Raises GBP 500M to Ease Debt

The global directory publisher Yell Group has succeeded in its effort to convince lenders to go along with a plan to raise 500 million pounds through a rights issue and restructure its 3.8 billion pound debt load. Debt restructuring has become an increasingly urgent concern for Yell as the year has progressed and results in many of its key properties sagged under the weight of a global economic slowdown. (read more…)