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

CitySquares Acquires Yokel, a Site for Local Retailers

CitySquares, an online city guide and directory company based in Boston, has acquired the assets of Yokel, which provides online retail services and maintains a database of two million retailers. Terms weren’t disclosed. The combination should work well with CitySquares’ recent turn towards national/local operations. (read more…)

More on Apple/Quattro (The R Rated Version)

I’ve had more time to digest some of the possibilities for Apple’s $275 million acquisition of mobile ad network Quattro. As discussed, it follows closely behind Google’s AdMob acquisition and both will be harbingers of more M&A activity in the mobile space. This will be driven by the need for media companies to better monetize the growing volumes of ad inventory on their products or networks. (read more…)

Pay per Call: To Cap or Not to Cap

Telmetrics President Bill Dinan wrote an interesting piece in MediaPost this week that offers some practical advice on building pay-per-call programs. One of the more interesting topics he covers is whether it makes sense for publishers to place a cap on a pay-per-call program. The question involves a real dilemma for publishers. (read more…)

When and How Will Visual Search Arrive?

I got in a discussion yesterday about visual search. It was in response to BIA/Kelsey’s year-end analyst webinar, in which we outlined the up-and-coming mobile bar code scanning apps. The conversation started about the ill-fated CueCat introduced about 10 years ago. (read more…)

Mobile Predictions (and Shameless Self Promotion)

Later this week, we’ll publish reports across BIA/Kelsey’s coverage areas that predict market trends and events of the coming year. Part of that involved looking back on past predictions to calibrate our handicapping abilities. (read more…)

PBS Survey: Schools Rapidly Adopting Online Media

Schools aren’t always appreciated as the linchpin for new media adoption. But Apple successfully focused on the education market to gain a foothold. So did AOL. In our view, an understanding of new media adoption by schools is critical to getting the big picture. That’s why we watch the annual PBS survey of schools and technology very closely. (read more…)

What Local Media Did You Use in 2009?

Being in the local media space, each New Year I reflect on my buying habits of the past 12 months and how I found local businesses. This year I realized that I used a wider variety of media than in the past to find local service providers including the following: Angie’s List for a housecleaning service; the print Yellow Pages for an exterminator and a garage door repair; a door hanger for a carpet cleaner; a mass e-mail blast from a local salon for a new hairstylist; direct mail coupon for an oil change and so on. (read more…)

BIA/Kelsey Commentary: Economic Signs Looking Up for Traditional Media

We head into the New Year severely chastened by the historic revenue declines of the past year. For traditional media companies — not so much the new media companies that BIA/Kelsey also covers — they were several shades of awful. (read more…)

Confirmed: Apple/Quattro

After hearing whispers from a reporter last week that Yahoo was eyeing mobile ad network Quattro, we started hearing similar rumors over the past 24 hours that Apple would be the suitor. Kara Swisher at WSJ then scooped the story and this morning, we’ve heard official confirmation from Quattro. (read more…)

Nexus One Officially Unveiled

We all knew it was coming: Google’s Nexus One “super phone” was just unveiled at its press event at the Googleplex. Thanks to the company’s famous “dogfooding” strategy, many of the device specs were previously leaked. It looks to be the most powerful Android-powered device yet, but that may not last long given the rapid fire roll-outs (most recently, the now-dethroned Droid). (read more…)