Events and “recreational discovery” are being transformed by social media, as evidenced by the development of Eventbrite, a new ticketing platform, and Goby, which helps consumers find things to do, including travel. Eventbrite CEO Kevin Hartz noted that his company,…
Liveblogging the social events panel at ILM East. Kevin Hartz, the CEO and founder of Eventbrite, is speaking on how the ticket-selling service is riding social media to about $500,000,000 in ticket sales this year. Hartz starts with a slide…
With 300,000 delivery and takeout restaurants in the U.S., the online food ordering space is definitely heating up, with New York Magazine’s MenuPages launching in many markets, and allmenus.com still playing (although with leadership changes). Now coming on strong is…
Cars still need to be sold by salespeople and that never changes. And most people still want to get on the phone to talk to their dealer. What does change is the ability to find cars on the Web, notes…
You've probably heard by now that AOL has continued its content acquisition streak by acquiring hyperlocal news and blogging network Outside.in. Outside.in will beef up Patch's hyperlocal content and also its team, as it continues the ambitious plan of cracking…
Reply.com has carved out a niche among online marketing companies by offering an auction marketplace for locally targeted consumer traffic for various verticals (home improvement, autos, real estate, insurance, etc.). Now, it is set on building a mobile strategy. The…
I recently had the opportunity to sit down with Graham Clarke, CEO of Dealicio, an offshoot of 53 Technology. Dealicio is a white-label platform enabling local media companies to launch, manage and advertise daily deals. Dealicio recognized the power of…
Google just launched Google Weddings. While it's possible this is just a 20 percent timer side-project, it's also possible this is a component of a Social/Local strategy. I am sure my fellow BIA/Kelsey-ites will be weighing in on this, but some…
"Write once, read everywhere” concepts are popular ones with so many platforms to serve. Agendize is probably the king of these for listings and appointments, serving more than 66 unique platforms. Localeze and Universal Business Listings are other key players…
Gannett announced during its earnings call yesterday that it is now producing 264 hyperlocal neighborhood sites in 10 markets. This includes the recent addition of 30 hyperlocal neighborhoods in Sacramento. The hyperlocal neighborhoods, produced in conjunction with DataSphere, have put…
Everyday Health, the health portal with 26 million unique visitors coming from its 25 brands, including Revolution Health, Mayo Clinic and Drugstore.com, is going local via Health Deals, a group buying site. The site will leverage the company’s extensive email…
Leads for home and trade and real estate come in many flavors. Some come from intuitive URLs. Reply.com, a marketplace for local and category specific leads, reinforced the latter today, acquiring FastRoofingBids.com, FastRoofingLeads.com and LeadToRealty.com. Reply.com CEO Payam Zamani, in…
We’ve just announced the initial lineup for ILM East in Boston, March 21-23, which follows hot on the heels of our Interactive Local Media 2010 conference in Santa Clara -- possibly the largest local event ever, with 681 attendees. ILM…
One of the bigger questions is how the local portals will fully leverage the emerging social deals platform, with deal a day, coupons, flash sales, et al. Local.com, which reaches 22 million unique visitors via its destination site and network,…
When Amazon made its deal to invest $175 million in LivingSocial, it wasn’t entirely clear how Amazon played in the local deal space. Sure, Amazon has its own non-local deals. And it owns Dallas-based Woot, a product-based deals provider. Still,…
Among the most challenging but potentially lucrative verticals is “Legal.” Long dominated by legal listings leaders such as Martindale Hubbell and Reuters Thomson, legal has opened up a little with the rise of social media and social media driven review…
Alt weeklies have certainly taken a hit from city guides (and especially from classified sites such has Craigslist). There has been a great deal of consolidation in the space. Yet the biggest consolidator, Phoenix-based Village Voice Media, with 14 local…
On average, people only move every six years or so. So there isn’t likely to be as strong a list of reviews of real estate agents as there is for pizza. But that hasn’t stopped Zillow from adding reviews of…
The Washington Post continues ramping up its vertical strategy, launching Service Alley to provide leads for home and trade professionals. The site, which is a standalone and not directly linked to Washingtonpost.com, follows the launch of other Post verticals, such…
Rating and review sites for things like dining, nail salons and events (i.e., Yelp) are inevitably going to battle it out with Google. CityGrid Media’s Insider Pages wants to go in a different direction. Since last year, the site has…