I’m going to “get outta Dodge” (as some would say) for a few days to avert what might otherwise turn into a psychotic break with reality. I’ve always liked that phrase.

No blogging for me here until sometime Tues.

Oodle has integrated Twitter distribution into its network. According to the Oodle Blog:

Now you can post your listing on Oodle and automatically share it with friends on Twitter (as well as your friends on Facebook and MySpace). Listings are tweeted into your Twitter stream where your followers see it immediately.

Users can also follow or search for Oodle listings on Twitter.

I spoke with Oodle CEO Craig Donato yesterday briefly. He told me the Facebook integration was going well and that traffic was growing. He said Oodle’s social media integrations, including Twitter, are about trying to “enable conversations” around listings. Donato means lots of things by that, including sharing, investigation of listings and those associated with them, among other things.

Oodle has built a pretty massive network of publishers and “powered by” sites including Wal-Mart, Facebook, MySpace, AOL and many others.

Others are using Twitter as a distribution vehicle or traffic driver as well, including MerchantCircle (for coupons and deals), Scoot in the UK and a range of others. Soon it will be mandatory to have some kind of “Twitter strategy.”

___

But wait there’s more: Oodle’s success will likely not hurt Craigslist. I characterized the Oodle-Facebook integration as the first bona fide Craigslist challenger. But CL is the 18th most popular site on the US Internet with somewhere around 40 million uniques. It now appears to be the “Google of classifieds” in the sense that its market position seems unassailable.

The MobileBeat 2009 conference is next Thursday (7/16) in San Francisco at the Parc 55 Hotel. It’s 12 hours of mobile goodness. But you say mobile doesn’t apply to you?

At a time when 1 out of every 7 minutes spent with media is already on a mobile device, everyone has to take mobile seriously as a platform.

It’s going to be a terrific event with a great lineup of speakers. They include folks from Google, Palm, Yahoo Mobile, Motorola, Nokia, and Microsoft. There’s also a startup competition at the end of the event, which should be pretty interesting. In the Lo-Mo segment, I just spoke to startup Aloqa this morning. They’ll be there. The complete agenda is here.

For a discount you can sign up here and enter the code “mb09opusre.” It’s equal to the early-bird rate ($450).

Matt McGee posts at SEL about an event Google organized for SMBs in San Francisco to introduce them to the local business center and AdWords.  I’m guessing it’s a trial for other, similar events around the country. It’s being held next week, on July 15.

The copy for the announcement reads:

Google will host San Francisco business owners at City Hall for an afternoon of celebration and educational opportunity . . .

Google employees will be on hand to help you learn how to make the most of Google’s free business solutions and AdWords online advertising program, and we’ll distribute coupons for free AdWords advertising.

Google has tried many such SMB instructional events, from Google U (back in 2002) to ongoing “success seminars” (AdWords training sessions) still going on at various locations. These, and other efforts, such as the Google Online Marketing Challenge, are part of Google’s outreach to the SMB market.

Matt then goes on in the rest of his post to discuss complaints from existing SMB customers and advertisers about Google’s uneven customer service. His headline is Google Pitches New Small Business Customers, Ignores Existing Ones.

According to a global Nielsen survey (25K online users in 50 countries), people trust their friends and then user-generated reviews and consumer opinions. Here’s the hierarchy of trust:

Very strangely “brand websites” comes in third before newspaper editorial content.

RH Donnelley and Innovectra announced a deal for Dexpages, a searchable, clickable “look and feel” online version of the print directory. It can be downloaded or browsed online:

Each directory maintains the look of a print directory on a computer screen, and contains all of the information found in print versions, including local business and white pages listings, community information, and more. In addition, Dex Pages enables keyword search and displays hotlinks to email and website addresses, making it easy for consumers to contact businesses directly or discover more information on the business with a single click.

Currently available in the 14 states where R.H. Donnelley publishes directories for Qwest, Dex Pages will expand by the end of the year to include areas featuring the EMBARQ(R) Yellow Pages brought to you by Dex and AT&T Real Yellow Pages published by Dex. Once this is complete all directories published by R.H. Donnelley will be available on Dex Pages. Each virtual directory will be hosted by Innovectra using its ActivDirectory software.

Other publishers such as Idearc are doing this too. Look and feel lost out to search (search style presentation) in the early part of this decade but is now apparently making a comeback. Appealing to a segment of the audience that has moved online but still likes the familiar print layout and display ads. So publishers have “diversified” with print, online print look and feel, IYP/search, mobile apps/Web as sources of traffic for their advertisers.

What do you think about look and feel. Like it? Hate it?

Google Apps, Google browser, Android . . . Chrome OS. As most of you know by now, Google announced a full-blown operating system for netbooks and PCs:

Google Chrome OS is an open source, lightweight operating system that will initially be targeted at netbooks. Later this year we will open-source its code, and netbooks running Google Chrome OS will be available for consumers in the second half of 2010. Because we’re already talking to partners about the project, and we’ll soon be working with the open source community, we wanted to share our vision now so everyone understands what we are trying to achieve . . .

Google Chrome OS is a new project, separate from Android. Android was designed from the beginning to work across a variety of devices from phones to set-top boxes to netbooks. Google Chrome OS is being created for people who spend most of their time on the web, and is being designed to power computers ranging from small netbooks to full-size desktop systems. While there are areas where Google Chrome OS and Android overlap, we believe choice will drive innovation for the benefit of everyone, including Google.

Quick thoughts:

• Until people see and evaluate the OS no real assessments can be made of its prospects but Android suggests it will be solid and viable
• Accordingly this potentially gives MSFT a real run for its money (literally) in the netbook segment — the only healthy segment of the PC market. Could also eventually go “upstream” and challenge on laptops/PCs but that’s farther off and much more speculative.
• Google now is almost a complete alternative to MSFT (OS, apps, mobile, browser)
• Open source code (like Android) means that netbook OEMs will probably use Chrome to boost margins (if only a very little)
• The move is logical because Chrome (the browser) was a kind of OS or platform for developers and apps development. Android is an OS but perhaps not technically “robust” enough for netbooks and certainly not full PCs
• Chrome the OS will be deeply integrated with the browser experience and try to create a more seamless online-PC experience. Google made much of HTML 5 in the browser and what it could do — not quite enough it would seem, however.
• Apple and Google are now true competitors across a broader range of fronts. Google is very much like Microsoft now in many respects. It’s only a matter of time before Google CEO Eric Schmidt will be compelled by investors or regulators to depart the Apple board (the DOJ is looking into the two common Apple, Google directors)
• Even though there’s nothing explicitly anti-competitive here — in fact it makes the OS market more competitive — Google makes its position potentially more difficult with regulators simply because the company spans several key market segments and is using their integration to maintain leadership (though not illegally) in search online and extend it to mobile

You can read the scores of posts on Techmeme.

____

Agree with Henry Blodget’s remark about Chrome:

If Google wants to succeed in its boldest product launch to date, the Chrome OS, the company needs to focus on its success with the same intensity it once dedicated to search.

If it doesn’t, Chrome OS will end up just like Chrome: yet another irrelevant skunkworks project used by a handful of digerati and Microsoft-haters and ignored by everyone else.

Not sure that the criticism of Chrome the browser is fair yet. But Google’s “if we build it they will come” attitude more often than not has lead to products falling short of their potential. But Android success suggests that if Chrome the OS is good OEMs will use it.

Google has announced a widget that easily integrates driving directions on websites:

This simple gadget allows webmasters to add customized Google Maps directions to their business locations. With the directions gadget, you no longer need to type and update multiple sets of text directions. Let’s face it: customers are only looking for directions from their specific location.

The gadget allows you to pre-fill the “To” field with one or multiple addresses. Customers are then able to print their directions with a single click. And if they would prefer not to drive, the gadget also provides walking and public transit directions.

Here’s Stanford University’s integration:

In the B2B store locator world, Where2GetIt, MapQuest and Microsoft (Virtual Earth) are the significant competitors. This is Google’s entry, which should prove popular.

From Citigroup’s Mark Mahaney this morning:

We Conducted Our Own Proprietary Study of Comparative Search Results – We three-screen tested 200 of the most popular current Search queries using Google, Yahoo!, and Bing.

1. We found Google with either the most relevant results or tied for top relevancy 71% (142 Searches) of the time.
2. We found Bing with either the most relevant results or tied for top relevancy 46% (92 Searches) of the time.
3. And we found Yahoo! with either the most relevant results or tied for top relevancy 30% (59 Searches) of the time.

(emphasis added)

We view our study as generally validating the positive Bing reviews . . . but also demonstrating Google’s very strong position.

In Terms Of Stock Takeaways… – We find these datapoints incrementally positive for MSFT, incrementally negative for YHOO (although strategic options provide a bit of a hedge here and Street estimates appear to already assume Search market share erosion for YHOO), and generally neutral for GOOG.

In my initial discussion of Bing and Google on SEL the day Bing launched I said:

Some may look at the screens above and shrug. Indeed, some people have argued to me that Bing “has to be at least 50 percent better” than Google to start peeling away users loyal to Google (or Yahoo). Bing isn’t 50 percent better than Google. However, Bing does offer results that are, across the searches I conducted, highly competitive with Google and in some cases it offers features that are more user-friendly.

Given the strength of Google’s brand and its “ownership” of search Bing may struggle to make market share gains. However I predict that it will gain share. Those potential gains may come not at Google’s expense but rather from Ask, AOL or even Yahoo.

Digital out of home has been a growing media segment. It’s interesting to me also because it’s “place-based,” meaning the screens where you see the media and advertising are in particular locations, although in most instances the ads and content are only nominally local. Yesterday two of the more visible players in the category, Danoo and IdeaCast, announced they were combining:

Danoo, a leading digital location-based media network with interactive video screens in popular retail locations, has acquired IdeaCast, the leading provider of advertising in the rapidly expanding captive television category. This combination creates one of the largest and most advanced media platforms in the location-based media space. As part of the transaction, National CineMedia, LLC (NCM), operator of the largest digital cinema network in North America for cinema advertising, alternative entertainment and events, and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB), a leading venture capital firm with a rich history of building entrepreneurial investments into successful enterprises, will each hold a minority interest in the new company. The assets acquired by Danoo had been previously acquired by NCM from the original IdeaCast entity. The new Danoo corporate entity will continue to operate and sell advertising across its digital media networks under the Danoo and IdeaCast brands.

Danoo and IdeaCast have exclusive contracts to present content and advertising in thousands of high traffic and extended dwell time venues, including top-tier health clubs, airport newsstands, seatback TVs on JetBlue, Frontier and Continental Airlines, and a dense concentration of coffeehouses, upscale delis and cafes in the top U.S. media markets. The arrangement unites the best location-based media opportunities with leading technology, such as transparent ad insertion, IP-based geo-targeting, mobile interactivity, digital content distribution and dynamic content localization. The new entity provides advertisers and marketers an unprecedented platform to reach the elusive upscale mobile professional underserved by traditional media such as television.

This combination will give the new company much more leverage and clout with advertisers, as well as reach with consumers (it’s all about reach). Existing local sales channels haven’t really tapped into Digital OOH as a distribution medium to date. RippleTV offered (I don’t know if it still does) a unique self-service ad capability.

One of the more recent developments in the space, Danoo (in its earlier incarnation) added mobile marketing as an extension of what it was doing. This mobile-traditional media (although Digital OOH isn’t really traditional) combination is going to be more and more prevalent.