LOC@L SEO GUIDE

WhitePages.com gets into the infographic/linkbait game:

So far I am not a fan.

When I am looking for info on Bronycon, I don’t need to see the Bronycon info that I shared, or that my friends have shared, as the default result. Would be much better as an option to filter the results.

And who came up with that mouthful of a name?

Pretty innovative use of QR codes by Tesco HomePlus in South Korea’s subways:

This is the kind of thing that makes me think brick and mortar retail is doomed in the long run.

Thanks To Don Campbell for pointing this one out.

Just got my hands on a 50% discount code for the AppNation Enterprise conference on January 12th in San Francisco. The code is ENTERPRISE50. AppNation is a great new conference series put on by Drew Ianni Register here.

Greg reports on AT&T Interactive finally listening to me

AT&T Interactive has opened up all the content on YP.com to third party developers. That means app developers will have access to YP.com’s 17 million local listings, maps, reviews/ratings and deals for free:

Great list from Greg on free local data set providers.

From Perry Evans in the comments:

It also feels like we’re “racing to the bottom” for core directory data businesses. The value now has to be constructed on top of a quality directory data resource, and this continues to demand that data-centric businesses expand beyond simple license and hosted data services.

I love the developer challenge they are running to get some cool apps created for SXSW. More info at http://developer.yp.com/

We’re trying something a little different this month on the blog – sponsors.

I recall Jason Calacanis once saying he would never put ads up on his blog because “this is where I eat”, as in don’t do certain other activities in the same place as your dining facilities. Over the years I have kept that in mind whenever anyone has approached me about advertising here. That said, I have always thought if a company has a service that would be valuable to my readers, I would be open to it. So when Robert Hawthorne of Hawthorne Search asked if he could advertise his executive recruitment service, I thought it would be a good test to see if there is room for sponsors on these hallowed pages.

I have known Robert for several years. He is well-known and respected in the local search/yellow pages industry and as far as I know is the top recruitment firm focused on Local. If you are getting itchy for a new challenge, check out the job board. Here’s a sample of some of the gigs currently listed:

CEO in Puerto Rico!
VP Marketing in NYC
GM Online Commerce in NYC
SEM Manager in Bellevue, WA

Let me know what you guys think of the sponsor thing – pro and con. And if you have a great service that you think would be right for the blog and are interested in participating in this test, please ping me.

Check out a similar post on Greg Sterling’s blog. Can you say “network effect?”

I was just perusing Rafat Ali’s Reinventing Yahoo post where he recommends that Yahoo should buy TripAdvisor as the first step in a strategy to redefine itself as the “people-powered listings business”. He then goes on to suggest Yelp, HomeAway, OpenTable, Trulia (home of ex-Yahoo Local GM Paul Levine btw) and Zillow as other potential acquisitions. The idea being:

“This plan leverages its user base, still the second largest in the world, to build its future.

It can continue to focus on content assets that build on top of those listings and reviews assets, as a loyalty driver.”

I’ve got to say I like the idea because what he’s really saying is that Yahoo needs to quintuple down on Local.

A few years ago Yahoo Local was a big player in the local search scene – they had a ton of traffic and were doing aggressive marketing. I am sure they still have a fair amount of traffic but as far as I can tell they have not done much to move the needle on the service in a long time. The site looks pretty much like it looked four years ago. Update: Anthony Moore, Director of Editorial at Yahoo! points me towards the new beta.local.yahoo.com which launched in December. I have always been mystified by this because as we localistas know Local is where the biggest bucks are – of course it’s also one of the hardest markets to crack at scale.

But bringing together best-of-breed players in each important vertical, who have all cracked local at scale in one way or another, could be a potential game changer for Yahoo. Of course they could always screw up the co’s once they acquire them – see Flickr – but these assets could be powerful if brought together in the right way.

Happy 2012 btw.

Update: Now that I think about it, it wouldn’t be bad idea for them to merge with eBay either, given eBay’s focus on local commerce and Yahoo’s new CEO’s PayPal/eBay background.

to all you Misers out there.

Thanks to the talents of my bud Mike, the malware that took over my blog is hopefully now gone.  There’s still some work to do on bringing the site back to where it was but definitely glad that crap is over.  Thanks to the spamming Russians for making this a fun day.

Looks like my blog got hacked over the last 24 hours. We are working on fixing the problem. Apologies to anyone looking for local search info only to find themselves on a Romanian free Cialis site. Get it while supplies last!