New DexKnows.com Site Goes Live

After a while in Beta, the new DexKnows.com site launched yesterday... It will be very interesting to see how this impacts their positioning in the marketplace and if they see significant traffic increases from the more SEO-friendly structure of the site...

Kelsey Group Blogs » New Dex IYP Goes Live

Yellow Pages Around the World - Entry #1

For some of us who work in the YP/Local space, things aren't always the most exciting. But we are part of a global fraternity of YP employees, and from time to time, I'm going to try to bring a view of the world of the Yellow Pages. Here's a commercial from our brethren in the Phillipines. I'm guessing this is not officially licensed, but it's called the Jedi video (It's not in English, but there are enough English words that you should be able to figure it out)...

Sears Launches ServiceMagic Copy

Their hook, apparently, is that users will pay to list jobs, provide detailed project specs, and pre-screened contractors will bid on them. Long story short, I sincerely doubt this will ever get any kind of traction. Users don't want to pay for things they can get for free elsewhere and you're really trying to get them to decide on a provider based on price, when there are many more factors that are important to that kind of decision. Then, Sears wants to hold the money in escrow until everyone has agreed that things have been done to satisfaction, then will take 10% of the contractor's money? Sounds pretty bad on both ends...

Kelsey Group Blogs » Sears Launches ServiceLive, a Leads Site

The Life of an iPhone App

Very interesting analysis of iPhone app usage. What it shows is, in short, that iPhone app usage degrades severely starting almost immediately after first usage. Paid applications start at higher rates (in terms of % of users returning to use them on a given day), but degrade more quickly, almost zeroing out by 90 days out. Free apps, on the other hand, degrade more slowly, but are still around 1% of users returning by 90 days out. Sounds pretty similar to what I experience with apps on my own iPhone. This definitely doesn't mean every app loses its users, since this is an average, but it means if you want to really build a business on an iPhone app, you better find a way to differentiate yourself and make an app that brings people back beyond the first couple days.

The Life of an iPhone App: Nasty, Brutish and Short

Local Web Advertising is Slowing Down

All advertising spending will be going down in the next few years, with the state of the economy. Rates for ad space are decreasing and there are fewer people looking to buy. Even local, which had been the fastest-growing part of the online ad market, is looking at a decrease in spending, if this articles is correct (not just a slowing of growth but a decrease).

Local Web-Ad Market Cools Down - WSJ.com

SuperPages will be guaranteeing some advertisers' work

This is interesting. In around 300 categories (they don't mention which here, but I would imagine most are service-based categories like plumbers, locksmiths, etc - but ones where success or failure are fairly clear-cut), SuperPages will be insuring work done by specific advertisers who have opted in. If there is a dispute that can't be resolved by SP, they will pay the user up to $500 to make up for it. There's also some mention of potentially "punishing" the advertiser if they misbehave on this plan.

It's an interesting move, and a potential differentiator in the market. SP may have some issues getting advertisers to opt-in, but nonetheless, it could work (and I doubt they'd end up paying much out, though I don't know if they're prepared for the volume of problem resolution they might be dealing with). To me, though, the whole point of this is getting users engaged. SP is using this as a way to get users to register and leave reviews, which is becoming more and more important in the space (especially given the success of Yelp).

Superpages’ New ‘SuperGuarantee’ a Bold Move « Screenwerk