Archive for April, 2011

Mark Zuckerberg’s latest move may be the decision maker: Facebook has just applied for a patent for a search algorithm for its social network. With the new algorithm, Facebook may soon be able to introduce a search engine to its community members showing the links that their friends have also clicked on.
The new Facebook patents is officially titled: “Ranking Search Results Based on the Frequency of Access on the Search Results by Users of a Social-Networking System.” In other words, when users search for something on the web, results will be ranked according to how many users on the social network have previously clicked on them. Read the rest of this entry »

It’s been two years since Holger Heinze and Andreas Jung began their work with their team to design a new local search engine, and now it’s gone live: Easycheck, a type of online directory, couponing portal, job center, and ratings community all in one.

The goal is to grow to the most extensive platform for local search 3.0 and to establish transparency. These are certainly some confident words, and Heinze doesn’t stop there: “We’re not afraid of being compared to the internet giants like gelbeseiten.de, Groupon, Facebook, & Co.” Sounds pretty courageous… Read the rest of this entry »

“Homepages don’t cost a thing. Bring services into the market,” explained Dominique Mangiatordi using his expertise as marketing executive from the Proximedia Agency and his experience in the marketing of websites and services for about 20,000 small/mid-sized companies in Belgium. Mangiatordi and fifteen other speakers laid out some interesting points to the approximately 100 guests at the Yellow Pages Today Workshops on April 14 in Stuttgart.
Peter Buxton and Jesper Simonsen, the organizers of the one-day event, kicked things off with a thesis that there is yet a lot of potential for directory publications and local search engines to further focus on small/mid-sized companies, as only about fifty percent of which is to be found online. In light of the ever-growing competition between the search engine giant Google and Online-Pure-Plays in the yellow pages/telephone book segment, websites and mobile services offer interesting potential to win new customers and improve relations with current customers. Read the rest of this entry »

Online communities are gaining popularity at an exponential rate: the number of German users has grown by 10 million users within a year, as shown in the study “Social Networks in Germany”, conducted by the high-tech association BITKOM at the polling firm Forsa. In addition, about 40 million, or half of all federal citizens, are active in social networks. And which community is leading the pack? Facebook, of course. Read the rest of this entry »

While Microsoft is worrying about dealing with German data protection agents for its geodata-service Streetside as part of the local search engine Bing Maps, Google’s panorama view service is worrying about much different things. Media reports have reported that the company will be putting a stop to its project Street View in Germany. This isn’t the case, however. The quote from a Google representative was misinterpreted. Read the rest of this entry »

Bing Maps, Microsoft’s local search engine, will be bringing its geodata service Streetside to Germany. Starting May 9th, the camera cars will begin photographing Germany’s streets and public squares for the panorama view. Microsoft barely had the opportunity to announce their intentions before data security officers began criticizing the plan, similar to the criticism faced by Google Maps’ service Street View. The Bavarian State Office for Data Protection would like to prohibit the photography of private buildings in the event that Microsoft does not offer a possibility to have the photographs excluded. Read the rest of this entry »

The “local” subject has finally arrived at Internet World, a trade fair in Munich. The Local Media Conference took place today, and discussed a number of subject with the theme local marketing and content. It was a successful prelude.

The conference was organized by the Neue Mediengesellschaft Ulm and a Berliner marketing agency, Zanetti Altstoetter und Team. The targeted audience of the one-day conference: publishers and decision makers from marketing and sales. The agenda was “sporty”, as fifteen speakers passed around the microphone, topped off by an expert debate round, and all this within nine hours including breaks. The topics ranged from general pieces about regional marketing to fascinating case studies from printing, online, and mobile.

Here are some of the highlights: Read the rest of this entry »

We all know it from Facebook: now Google’s trying for a one-up. +1 is the search engine giant’s own personal “like” button. After all, just because results are quick, doesn’t always mean they are relevant. With the +1 button, Google is aiming to improve its accuracy, according to the official Google Blog. Read the rest of this entry »

HalloHeimat, a service from the online directory GoYellow, has been around since the middle of last year. Their operator, the 118000 AG, released the first digital weekly paper with extended content for all regions in Germany as an individual portal.
Starting immediately, users will not only find deals, coupons, and brochures from local stores, but also additional information specifically related to their hometown on halloheimat.de. Examples of such include event reports, movie times, service numbers, store ratings, and local news. Users just have to enter their current position and they will begin receiving all relevant information from their vicinity, according to the GoYellow-Blog. Read the rest of this entry »

The online directory 11880.com has, like the rating community golocal, given into the demands of the market: a free ratings widget is now available with integrated links to business websites. Read the rest of this entry »