Yahoo! suggesting business strategies to Google is like Goldman Sachs advising Warren Buffet (Berkshire Hathaway) on how to invest successfully. Not only is Yahoo! behind Google in nearly every category (email, search engine capabilities, online apps, etc.), but even their name sounds like a joke when compared to competitors.

Don’t get me wrong. I think that Yahoo! has some great offerings; their small business site hosting is fantastic, and their analytics are simple to understand and use. Yet, other than those two products, I don’t tend to use Yahoo! very often. Google, for me, has pretty much invaded my online world.

Thus, when I read that Yahoo! CEO Carol Bartz has spurned Google for their “lack of diversity,” I was a bit taken aback. I then thought that maybe Bartz was just being tricky, trying to throw Google off their game. The reason I say this is because the criticism stemmed from her opinion that the search engine giant was too focused on search. Huh? Read the rest of this entry »

Yodle is an online advertising company leading the industry in local search capabilities.  They were named the named fastest growing local online advertising company by industry analyst, Borrell Associates. Yodle’s local search business is a simple, cost-effective, and integrated approach to connecting thousands of local businesses with consumers.

Now, Court Cunningham, CEO of Yodle has co-authored an all-things-local search guide for online advertising that provides local business owners the ability to find new online customers. The book, Local Online Advertising for Dummies, went on sale April 12th and helps establish Yodle as the authority for local search compared to competitors. Other companies in the local online search provider business include Local Marketers,  OrangeSoda,  ReachLoca, and WebVisible.

Local Online Advertising for Dummies hit the shelves at an opportune time; over the past ten years, consumers in search of local businesses has grown from nothing to 80% of all searches conducted. Although the search market has changed, there are misconceptions about promoting a local business using search. Local Online Advertising for Dummies is the first effort to show business owners how to capitalize on the expanding local search trend. Read the rest of this entry »

The implications of that question might be a little bold today, but not by much.

Think about your normal everyday habits online for a few minutes.

In case you haven’t noticed, your online behavior has changed drastically in just the last couple of years.  How much of your news and information online do you have to GO TO to consume, and how much of your news and information COMES TO YOU?

(...Yes, you ARE very lazy.)

Now think about Facebook’s role in facilitating that “bring it to me” behavior.  How much of all that content being served up to you has Facebook’s fingerprints all over it (…on Facebook.com, on your mobile device, via an aggregation tool like TweetDeck)?

Now that we have established your semi-sad dependence on Mark Zuckerberg, what are some of the things supporting the argument that Facebook is becoming the new Internet?

What does Facebook dominate?

1) Scale

Unless you live in a cave, you are probably aware that Facebook is freaking enormous.

• More than 400 Million active users
• More than 50% active users log in every day
• The average user spends almost one hour per day on FB
• The average user has 130 friends
• More than 3 Million Pages (company, brand, etc.)
• 70% of active users are from outside the United States
• More than 100 Million active users access FB via mobile devices

2) Platform

Facebook can definitely play the role of destination site if you like it that way, but its real power is as a platform.

• More than 500,000 active applications
• More than 80,000 websites have implemented Facebook Connect
• More than 70 languages are supported and over 300,000 users help translate
• More than 60 Million users engage with Facebook Connect on external websites per month

3) Relevance

Facebook offers a degree of relevancy to YOUR content that is hard to match. Ask yourself this question – what is more important to you?

Information that is streamed to you without a filter other than keywords?

OR

Information that is streamed to you that you know is already pre-filtered by what you have chosen to receive along with  information that is shared from within your personal network?

This is about your personal preferences and trust.  Hands down the pre-filtered content will win your loyalty over the long term every time.  Facebook, 1 – Rest of the Internet, 0. Read the rest of this entry »