Verizon Going After AT&T Network

The new Droid isn’t really better than the iPhone, though it has some features that exceed the iPhone. It’s not really credible to keep claiming that Droid is better. But perhaps much more effective is the idea of attacking AT&T’s network, which has been a regular source of frustration to iPhone users.

Here’s a representative example:

AT&T has sued Verizon to stop what it claims are misrepresentations about its network coverage in this series of ads. The ads will likely be modified or discontinued as a result; but while the suit moves forward Verizon continues to land blow after blow. The commercial above is both humorous and very effective in terms of the message it’s trying to convey.

(via Endgadget).

New MSN’s Local Edition Trumps Papers

I wrote about the MSN homepage relaunch at SEL last week. There I mentioned that there was extensive local content as part of a “Local Edition” section. Circling back now, I have to say Microsoft has done a very nice job integrating a broad and useful range of local information here into a relatively deep content area. Although it surfaces local newspaper stories, it’s essentially a replacement for a local paper (with the exception of newspaper features content):

Notice the contextually and geographically targeted ad inventory on these pages. Eventually this all will make it into mobile.

None of Microsoft’s immediate competitors has something comparable. You can get news, sports, movies and traffic information — the same content — from all of them. However the experience is disconnected or verticalized. AOL’s MapQuest Local is probably only thing that’s comparable in terms of its “horizontal” nature and maybe iGoogle; however these pages require (or permit) users to set up the various content modules they’re interested in. (I’m a fan of MapQuest Local.)

Local is one of the “four strategic verticals” that Microsoft is emphasizing with Bing. Along those lines, I had an interesting conversation with Microsoft’s Kevin Hagwell the other day about local and it was apparent that they’re doing some very interesting thinking about it at Microsoft.

Take a look and let me know whether you think MSN has created a winner.

Monster Execs Launch ClickFuel for SMBs

Earlier this month a new soup-to-nuts SMB marketing company, ClickFuel, launched. The company has a relationship with Intuit and may get some promotion there through its App Center integration with QuickBooks. Beyond this — and though quite polished — they’re going to struggle like everybody else to be heard in the noisy and confusing world of online marketing. The company promises DIFM across a range of needs: “Web design and email marketing to PPC and SEO campaigns.”

The Boston-based company, launched by former Monster.com executives, is seeking to differentiate based on two factors: 1) a wide range of services and 2) human account support. Here’s the PR pitch I received: 

While myriad companies offer solutions, they aren’t focused on helping SMBs navigate the online marketing world. You either had to put blind faith in an expensive consultant- or take up valuable time to learn the ropes yourself. ClickFuel isn’t offering a do-it-yourself option. They have actual account staff that take time with the small business owner to personally set goals, explain strategy and then handle the execution. Most companies don’t integrate their online presence and execution with the kind of real human interaction you’d find with say, a consultant or offering like Hubspot. Despite being online-based, ClickFuel does.

They’ve built, specifically for small businesses, an online dashboard that allows the business owner to see actual analytics from their campaign, graphically, and explain complex terms and data in layman’s terms so there isn’t any confusion between what’s promised and what’s delivered- even for users who have never heard of terms like PPC or SEO. If they can access the internet- they’re up to date- but also have the option of talking to the account staff personally.

The mastermind behind this dashboard, Fuel Station, is Brian Farrey, former CTO at Monster.com who has been named by ComputerWorld as one of the country’s Top 100 CIOs and by Infoworld as one of the Top 25 Most Influential CTOs. Brian and Steve envision leveraging the “Monster model” that took job search from the paper classifieds to online and transform SMB marketing from Yellow Page-type methods to online for SMBs.

While I’m sure this company has some solid talent behind it and also useful tools, the claims make it sound a bit like the RedBeacon of SMB online marketing: announcing itself as though there weren’t already a ton of similar companies that had come before or currently circling the segment. For example, this incomplete list is from an old slide deck (though some may be now be gone or out of the market):

The timing may be ripe; the local market is now ripe for online marketing in a way it wasn’t two years ago. And the company may succeed — ReachLocal appears to be poised for its IPO filing which will get everybody very excited — but it will take time, visibility and the ability to build trust around a brand.

Judy’s Book Making a Comeback?

Judy’s Book is no longer run by Andy Sack. Its assets were acquired and the company relaunched late last year. Tonight I got this in my email in-box:

I went to the site and there’s some Twitter-inspired deal-stream on display:

I would think it very challenging to make a comeback at this point, but one never knows . . .

Plumber vs. HelpHive Debate Continues

If you want to see an interesting debate about small business, online marketing, who owns the data and call tracking, check out the 27 comments to this post, HelpHive Controversy: One Pissed Plumber

Evan Conklin, the tech-savvy plumber of the headline, offers his perspective at length as does Karim Meghji founder of HelpHive. And many others have interesting perspectives to offer . . .

Apple’s New ‘Reserve & Pick Up’

Apple has introduced a new online-offline shopping capability for the holidays — Reserve and Pick Up:

The ad copy:

Reserve an iPod or Mac online today and it will be waiting for you to pick up and purchase at an Apple Retail Store from December 15 to 24. You can even have many products wrapped.

It doesn’t seem to include the iPhone in the capability . . . but it’s still very smart.

@i2Go: Loopt, Mobile RFID, G-Droid, Etc.

Here are some recent posts from Internet2Go:

• Loopt Offers Local-Social Approach in Pulse
• Tetherball and ViVOtech Promote RFID Mobile Loyalty Programs
• Verve, AP Offer “White Label” Mobile App
• Google Pitches Droid to Homepage Visitors
• US Carriers: Who’s on Offense/Defense?
• Canalys Smartphone Sales and Share Data

Be sure to check out our FREE webcast next Thursday with MobilePeople: The Future of Location on Mobile Devices: LBS, Apps & Monetization

AT&T Contest Outsources Mobile Development

This is smart: the AT&T Big Mobile Campus Challenge. Essentially it’s a contest — for a paltry $10K in prize money — where AT&T enlists college students in building mobile applications and products that they then own and can further develop as they see fit.

The winner this year: “Rover,” a campus-based local content, networking and advertising application:

The grand-prize winner is a team of full-time students from Harvard University.  Alex Bick, Joy Ding, Drew Robb, Cameron Spickert and Winston Yan won for their “Rover” platform. They will split a $10,000 scholarship, and each team member will receive a mobile device of choice and a trip to the EduCause Annual Conference in Denver. “Rover” connects students with each other, their school and community.  The core of Rover is a guidebook, enhanced by location-awareness and social networking features to inform students of what is happening in their campus through local deals, events, news and transportation. “Rover” is unique in having a live feed of deals that connects local businesses with students, creating interactions that allow for greater integration of students into the local community and vice versa.

This is smart because AT&T may have difficulty developing compelling mobile apps and content in house. Often you have to go outside an organization to gain a fresh perspective and inject new creativity into the process. Using students, who are closer to the target population, and paying them relatively little to generate new ideas makes a lot of sense from a corporate perspective.

CyWorld: Victim of a ‘Winner Take all Web’?

Probably nobody who reads this blog cares that teenage-girl-centric CyWorld is shutting down. I wrote a reasonably lengthy post about it when the Korean-based social network launched in the US in September, 2006. Back then Twitter wasn’t on the scene and MySpace was the dominant site:

For any new market entrant in the social media/networking space the question of course is: how do you expect to compete with MySpace, et al.?

Well it obviously didn’t/couldn’t. And this seems symbolic to me of the paradox of the increasing “winner take all” nature of the Internet: the vastness of online, especially in the social media realm, is dominated by a small number of sites and everyone else is shut out. But this is not just true of social media where “network effects” are perhaps most pronounced, but in a range of other areas.

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Related: Once white hot virtual world Second Life (remember them?) shifts focus to the enterprise.

They’re Back: Local Phone Numbers

My guess is that Google was testing something because the local numbers in the 7-Pack appear to be back. Here’s the same “dentist, SF” search from literally 30 seconds ago:

I haven’t heard anything from Google to clarify what this was about. In addition, the conventional AdWords ads have returned above the LLAds. My suspicion is that Google wanted to see the effect on user behavior of removing the phone numbers and the traditional AdWords.

We’ll see . . . What are others seeing?

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Statement from Google: “For a few hours this morning phone numbers were not displayed as part of local universal search results on Google. This was a small bug, and we quickly fixed it.”

Webcast: What Is Local-Mobile 2.0?

Is Local Search solved? Is Local-Mobile? What do the next generation of local-mobile apps look like? Those are among the questions we’ll try and address on a forthcoming Webinar: “The Future of Location on Mobile Devices: LBS, Apps & Monetization.” Here’s the blurb I wrote for it:

LBS and local advertising on mobile devices have been hyped and hailed as the “killer app” for mobile. But are they? Most of the current “local search apps” are lackluster and merely transfer the PC user experience to the mobile device. And most companies building local apps haven’t thought through their strategies very carefully.

What do “Local Apps 2.0″ look like? What services and data will they provide? Can the promise of location-aware mobile “discovery” be realized? And how will all this be monetized as a practical matter?

I’ll moderate a discussion with Jeff Porter and Nahid Giga of mobilepeople. I’ve been talking to those guys for some time about this issue and so we decided it would be a good subject for a webcast. I had a very interesting, related conversation with Jens Andersen, CEO and co-founder of mobilepeople about these issues in the yellow pages context specifically at the Local Social Summit I just attended. 

The webcast is next Thursday November 12, 2009 (1 p.m. ET / 10 a.m. PT) If you’re interested, you can register here.

HelpHive Controversy: One Pissed Plumber

Seattle plumber Evan Conklin is very angry at HelpHive. He made his feelings plain in a comment on one of my posts about the company. Now the Seattle blog TechFlash posts that part of Conklin’s anger is about call tracking:

That was until last Friday when Conklin stumbled upon HelpHive, a Seattle online directory of local service providers. Conklin couldn’t believe what he saw. His business listing on HelpHive included a phone number, but it wasn’t the one he’d used for the past 30 years. It was a new number generated and controlled by HelpHive, a proxy number of sorts that the Internet upstart had set up to track calls it was passing on to the plumber.

Conklin was appalled with the idea that a third-party Web site could create a new phone number for his business, thinking that it was simply a way to get between him and his customer and to eventually start charging him for leads. “They have no right to do that,” said Conklin.”These guys are like vampires, sitting behind laptops siphoning off business.” 

The questions this dispute raises (again) are:

• Who owns SMB data? (facts are public in the US and cannot be copyrighted)
• Can companies swap in things like call tracking numbers (very widespread) or other similar lead capture devices without the consent of the business itself? 

We’ll see if Conklin goes so far as to file a suit against HelpHive. If he were to, does anyone know of cases in this area that may have resolved the question of whether call-tracking or similar devices can be used without an SMB’s prior consent?

Phone Number Removal & Call Tracking

Another (perhaps less “conspiratorial”) thought that occurred to me about why Google removed phone numbers from the 7 Pack is to address the SEO + call tracking data quality issues that have been discussed in a number of recent posts on this blog:

• Telmetrics Responds to Call Tracking Debate
• Mihm Counterpoint on Call Tracking

Perhaps Google is trying to prevent call-tracking numbers from being exposed in the 7-Pack. Though in a way that doesn’t entirely make sense either. Google said to me that it’s using call tracking numbers (via Google Voice) for its Local Listing Ads. 

I’m eager to see what the company says about all this.

Why Did Google Remove The Phone Numbers?

Google appears to have removed the phone  numbers from map listings (7 Pack) that show in response to local queries. Here’s a typical recent local search result for “dentist, San Francisco”:

Look at that same query this morning. Yes, it’s much cleaner looking but the phone numbers are gone (from all but the Local Listing Ads):

Several things are interesting about it: 

• The absence of conventional AdWords (this is very interesting and worthy of independent further exploration and discussion)
• As mentioned, the presence of phone numbers in the Local Listing Ads but their absence from the 7 Pack

This appears to be a global change. Here’s what shows for “sushi, London“:

No phone numbers on the first page. If you click down, the phone numbers are there:

The change appears also in mobile but somewhat inconsistently. Below are variations on the query for “sushi” with and without location from an iPhone:

It may be difficult to see, but there are no phone numbers on the first page in any of the three left queries:

• Sushi, London
• Sushi (Web)
• Sushi San Franciso (Web)

In the final screenshot on the right (“sushi” using the Local tab), we do see phone numbers. Otherwise they’re not present — though they were as recently as a day or two ago. The question is: Why has Google made this change?  Is Google trying to drive calls to advertisers rather than organic listings, which now “bury” the phone number below the click:

Is Google trying to combat or prevent this:

The second image is a screen from the European Directories-Skype deal that uses phone number recognition to “activate” (free call) the numbers of European Directories advertisers and overcome the problem of diminishing SEO visibility for local, organic third party links on page one “above the fold.” The removal of phone numbers from the “7 Pack” effectively kills that deal’s value. There was reason to belive that Skype and other directory publishers in the US and around the globe would have done or are working on something similar. If the purpose of removing the phone numbers from the 7 Pack was to kill the directory-Skype deal scenario it would raise anti-competitive issues I believe. 

I’m going to ask Google to comment and I’ll post any response I receive from them verbatim.

Marchex Offers Self-Service Ads to Partners

Marchex announced earlier today that it had extended the Marchex Connect platform to enable partners to sell or enable self-service by SMBs:

[A]n extension of its award-winning Marchex Connect platform that allows partners to sell call- and click-based advertising solutions through an online self-serve interface, under their own brands, directly to small- to medium-sized businesses (SMBs).

This product extension is designed to support two Marchex partner profiles: Companies who sell their products to SMBs predominantly through an online channel; and Companies who want to complement their “feet on the street” SMB sales force with an online offering they can support through direct marketing.

If the product is easy enough to use and the value to the advertiser is clear more SMBs will self-serve over time, especially newer businesses.

Just Because It’s Funny: Flutter

We showed this parody of Twitter at the Local Social Summit before my panel on Local and real-time search, because it’s funny. Although you’ve seen it before, it’s worth watching again:

A Closer Look at Mobile App Yellix

I got my first hands on look at Yellix, a mobile app that integrates Facebook and directory listings. It’s on all smartphone platforms right now but the iPhone — to which it’s coming.

The app is clever and defies easy description and categorization. If two Yellix mobile users are also on Facebook, when one of them calls the other they’ll see their Facebook profile pictures and recent status updates on the phone’s home screen. They will also see the top callers from their network on Facebook (via the Yellix FB app).

If the call is not from a number in the user’s address book, the app looks up the number in a database and identifies the caller (if possible) in real time.

If you’re calling a business and don’t get through the app gives you the ability to call again or provides three alternative listings (from directory publisher partners) in the same business category. These listings are at the discretion of the YP publisher but generally will be advertisers. This is the business model as I understand it right now.

This is not the sort of app that would be easy to “get” from a VC perspective; it seems to have a bunch of unrelated moving parts. Yet the app won an award in Austria for being the best Android app and it seems to be gaining adoption. Claudia Poepperl CEO of adaffix, the company behind Yellix, also told me some interesting things about usage.

Yellix launched first on Nokia/Symbian, also on Windows Mobile and then Android. She said that within a very short time Android was the largest usage segment, despite its tiny user base. Symbian was very small and Windows Mobile in the middle. The iPhone app has yet to come out. But restrictions on the iPhone mean that some of the features will not operate in the same way as they do on the other platforms.

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Claudia Poepperl corrects me:

1. “If two Yellix mobile users are also on Facebook, when one of them calls the other they’ll see their Facebook profile pictures and recent status updates on the phone’s home screen.”

It is not necessary that both have YELLIX on their phone. It is enough if e.g. I have YELLIX on my phone and we are both friends on Facebook. Then I would see your status and pic when you call me. You would not need to have YELLIX on your phone.

2. regarding Symbian: it still has the largest YELLIX user base overall, but Android is catching up very very fast.

Reflections on the Local Social Summit

I attended and spoke at the Local Social Summit today in London. Aside from getting soaked by the rain in the morning and an unreliable WiFi set up, the event was really good. It ambitiously tried to sit in the middle and capture the intersection of social media and local — with a healthy dose of mobile thrown in.

Much of the discussion throughout the day was provocative, trying to assess where the local and social media markets were headed and what the products of the near future would look like. For example, one of the panels I moderated was:

Local Gets Social – The Impact of User Generated Content and the Promise of Real-Time Search

• Seb Provencher, Co-Founder Praized Media
• David Ingram, CEO Brownbook
• Sokratis Papafloratos, CEO TrustedPlaces
• Andrew Hunter, General Manager Qype

These guys had lots of interesting things to say about whether and how “real time” content would make its way into their sites and local more generally. And there was lots of healthy disagreement.

The crowd was an interesting mix of pure Internet marketing people, agencies, YP publisher representatives and local online media (such as those above). Yelp, Yellix, MobilePeople and Cloudmade were also there among the mobile contingent.

Most people stayed until the very end, after dark, for a final session led by Seb Provencher, who was presenting a vision for what the ideal consumer local offering would look like in 2014 (the slides I previously shared). The discussion with pretty free-ranging and encompassed most of the themes raised earlier in the day. Nothing was resolved definitively and there were many sharply opposing views.

While we can argue that the presence of a dominant Google in search may for the time being make local search a “solved problem,” it’s evolving before our eyes, especially when mobile is thrown in. And despite the challenges local is definitely not a static segment.

What’s arguably emerging is the possibility (and perhaps eventually necessity) of a richer social media “layer” evolving out of reviews into a collection of tools and capabilities that enable consumers to access networks and data in new ways. One of the products I discussed with a couple people during a break was a “federated” local-mobile Q&A offering that would include real-time community response, archived UGC data and traditional local database listings.

Even as the consumer side threatens to become more complex, the “old” issues and challenges surrounding SMB ad sales remain. Along those lines, one of the most interesting panels of the day from my point of view was:

Local Content & Monetisation – A View from Europe

• Simon Greenman, MD – Online, European Directories
• James Thornett, Development Manager Location Services, Mapping, BBC Local
• Ben Barney, Akesios
• Joachim Helfer, Müller Medien
• Roland Bryan, Associated Northcliffe Digital

Joachim Helfer of Müller Medien impressively described a build out of vertical properties that help form a network for its advertisers. The company is thinking very actively and creatively about how to serve advertisers and where traffic will come from in the future.

Simon Greenman teased the audience with some discussion of European Directories’ deal with Skype but said it was still too early to report any results. At dinner after the event he got into some very provocative scenarios, hypothetically.

Another highlight was the afternoon keynote by Oxford research fellow Bernie Hogan: “Making sense of the networked audience: The case of Facebook.“

There were two big light-bulb moments for me, but no definitive conclusions that emerged and much disagreement about particulars among the speakers. However, the level of discussion was high and very interesting because of the “hybrid” nature of the event. In addition, because it was intentionally small the final session was highly interactive, with audience members asking questions and making comments drawn from data and presentations throughout the day.

Overall well done. There’s much to think about and it’s clear that the local segment remains as exciting and elusive as ever.

Google LSS to Be a Monster (as in Huge)?

In a column today local SEO Master Andrew Shotland analyzes and prognosticates:

At the moment Google social search does not work very well for local search. The algorithm appears to rely heavily on Gmail connections. Combine this with the fact that its hard to find enough relevant social interactions for a large amount of search queries, so Google doesn’t have much to work with for a lot of users.

But you can be sure that with the announcement of a Twitter integration deal and Facebook turning on location-based services, Google social search is going to come out like a monster and the local part of it is going to be huge.

So how can you benefit from this?

First let’s talk about some of the main types of social connections one has on the web:

• Friends
• Friends of friends
• People who are interested in the same niche
• People who are located in the same geographic area
• People who you have no connection with (let’s call them “the unfortunates”)

As I mentioned in my Twitter Chamber of Commerce post there is a large opportunity for businesses to increase awareness in their community by simply networking with other businesses via social media like Twitter. But now with the advent of Google social search, the simple act of following or being followed has a ripple effect that could yield dramatic benefits.

Read the full column at Search Engine Land.

 

The Future of Local Consumer Media?

Tomorrow at the Local Social Summit in London there’s a concluding session entitled “What does the Perfect Local Media Company Look Like in 5 Years Time”:

The final session of the day will be an interactive session where we put togther the ultimate specification for the killer local media company of the near future.

This session is being run by Praized’s Seb Provencher. I asked him at dinner last night whether this was about the business side or exclusively about the consumer experience. He said the latter (although I suspect the biz model discussion will sneak in).

I’m going to compile the excellent comments in response to OK, Let’s Talk about Local Search and present some of them for discussion during the session tomorrow. If there’s anything really interesting that emerges I’ll blog about it. As a little taste of the session, here Seb’s presentation for  tomorrow:

Separately, I've been having lots of conversations with different people on the question of whether local search is "solved," ever since these posts.