Sears is loath to invest in its physical stores but has built a collection of “shop your way” online and mobile services as a high margin substitute, according to an article on WSJ.com. The article notes that Sears’ e-commerce division…
Three years ago, BIA/Kelsey created the Marketplaces research program and conference because we saw that local advertising was quickly "verticalizing." Indeed, money and talent have poured in for the new breed of vertical products that would take their place among…
We're hearing a lot about Google's Nexus One, failed expectations and enraged customers. Complaints have reverberated throughout the blogosphere that Google's direct-to-consumer approach leaves many Nexus One owners without the ability to see and handle the device before purchasing. Worse…
Yell.com has decided to forgo partnering on maps with Google, Microsoft or other potential competitors in favor of building its own propriety map product. The U.K.'s largest directory publisher unveiled a beta version of the Yell Maps product this week.…
There's been lots of talk about how the newly minted SuperMedia (formerly Idearc) is repositioning itself as it emerges from bankruptcy. Some of this is about branding but a great deal of it also involves the longstanding evolution of how…
As we enter the smartphone generation, directory listings may only be a starting point for consumer information needs. In terms of revenue opportunities, they may only be scratching the surface. CallSpark, which calls itself the “call experience company,” seeks to…
By Tom Buono, CEO, BIA/Kelsey John Kelsey, having sold The Kelsey Group a year ago to BIA, has stepped down from the company after helping us all with the transition. John has been a remarkable force of innovation in the…
MSNBC.com’s EveryBlock is moving beyond its roots as a hard-core aggregator of hyperlocal data with its first social feature: “Notify Your Neighbors.” The feature, which has been tested for over a month, is similar to other sites, such as Rottenneighbor.com,…
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,…
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 2 million retailers. Terms weren’t disclosed. The combination should work well with CitySquares'…
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…
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…
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. Essentially, visual search comes in a few different flavors including: QR…
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. There was one nugget I remembered…
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…
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…
By Steve Passwaiter, VP, Business Development 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 --…
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…
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…
Real-time reservations have moved beyond restaurants, hair salons and parking garages and are now being offered for self storage units. G5 Search Marketing, which specializes in self storage, has teamed with Centershift and United Stor-All Management to launch Web sites…