Zoomf is Acquired by Trinity Mirror

No surprise that Zoomf is being acquired. There had been rumours that the Web 2.0 property search player has been up for sale for awhile. One would guess this a good way for Trinity to get some good online talent plus this sites tech and traffic. That cat is out on the deal. From my view this makes a lot of sense – property search (real estate) online should be a key part any newspaper’s digital and future proofing strategy.

Local Search in Singapore

I was catching up on the latest over on Alt Search Engines today about search in Singapore and it reminded me about a innovative new local search engine from Singapore called Rednano.

Rednano is a JV between Singapore Press Holdings (a newspaper group) and Schibsted (another mainly European newspaper and online media group. Much like other local search initiatives like Ireland.com, Sesam.no, 24.com (in South Africa) and Sensis (in Australia) – Rednano is trying to fuse great local content with the best local knowledge to delivery a great ‘local search’ site in that region… And thus create a winning strategy against the likes of Google and Yahoo!

Smart Move by The Guardian

The Guradian Media group in the UK announced last week that they are buying ContentNext, the parent company of digital business website PaidContent, as part of its US expansion. ContentNext is basically a very good blog publishing outfit.

Why is this smart? Easy. Great content. Online traffic. Digital savvy team. A platform for expansion into other markets, like the US.

There were lots of posts around the web last week about this deal and by people a lot smarter than me – so I am not going say much more tonight. Its a good move. The Guardian is one of the top newspapers groups in terms of digital strategy! Right up there with the likes of Schibsted and the Irish Times.

A New Local Search Site in Ireland – ireland.com relaunched

It was very sweet today to get online and see that Ireland.com has relaunched the site as a local search ‘portal’ for all things Irish. BTW – this is such a money domain (simple, geo, universal)!

In addition, the Irish Times newspaper site has been re-designed, the subscription charges dropped and the newspaper has moved to a dedicated URL – http://www.irishtimes.com/ (the newspaper used to be at the URL Ireland.com).

The Irish Times site has also had a major face lift and is much improved. The site also looks to be driving a strong connection to the major classified channels: Homes, Jobs, Cars and with a special Dating channel as well (this is interesting to have a focus on dating).

A quick review of the Ireland.com site reveals a very clean design and an almost sexy brand – definitely bright and breezy. It is driven by a single search box that handles What/Who/Where. The results pages are very Web 2.0 and include UGC, with an option to create your own account some you can add a review.

There are ‘lifestyle’ channels (you can see these channels icons above) that can also act as navigators (an alternative path to finding content and can also acts as stand alone sub-sites) covering:

• Sport
• Travel
• Going Out
• Staying In (nice one!)
• Style & Beauty
• House & Home
• with 2 others yet to launch (ie – coming soon)…

Here’s an example hotel results page:

I will be back with more on this site, but I wanted to get something out quickly this morning to help get the word out there. Would enjoy getting feedback and commnets from anyone using the site. Thanks.

UPDATE: Greg Sterling has a short post on this site here – I agree that is a “killer” domain and the new Ireland/com really is a shinning example of what and how to develop this kids of local/geo site!

Schibsted a Shining Example – online revenue growth strong

Schibsted – a Scandinavian media group, which is historically very strong in newspapers and classified – is a shining example of the right way to execute online. At least IMHO here on A Fuller View.

Back in May they annouced a strong Q1 overall and continued strong online growth:

• Revenues from online operations increased by 29 %
• Spanish online classifieds increased revenues with 50 %. Schibsted Classified Media
(former Trader) increased revenues with 37 %
• Strong performance from FINN, Blocket/Bytbil and Hitta
• Online activities contributed with 66 % (53 %) of EBITA excl. associates

How many media groups are getting over 50% of EBITA from online!? The full report is online here and worth trying to digest. Schibsted have been very aggressive with online innovation with the likes of Finn, VG and Sesam. The local search site Sesam is a model that I think is worthy of export to other markets (I will do a review and expand on this at a later date).

Mid-Week Round-Up for 23 Jan 08 – misc interesting, cool bits & pieces

Well, its only the middle of the work week and there has been a lot of interesting stories and posts already. More stuff than I can keep up with. Here are some of the tidbits I think are interesting…

No, Google Won’t Buy the NYT. But Google.Org Could – I like this mini-post form John Battle’s search blog. I completely agree, lets put and keep the best news organizations in a trust. Living in the UK you sort of take it for granted, but I gotta say the BBC rocks and papers like The Irish Times and The Guardian also very cool and not run to make a profit for share holders.

Search Stocks & The Stock Crash: GOOG, YHOO & MSFT – this post is over on SEL. My opinion is all 3 of the majors are solid. I’ve got to think ad dollar$ continue to go into search during a down turn year, but that probably display gets hurt… This means Google could fair a bit better overall but they still have to finish the DoubleClick deal and they are still way over valued. I would sell GOOG short, hold YHOO or buy if it dips under $17 and buy MSFT all the way its cheap . Disclaimer: do NOT trust my stock tips. This is just fun.

The parent company of WordPress – Automattic – secures B round funding – this report from the NYT. Great news. I love WordPress! Related to this is a post by Greg Sterling – Harnessing Blogs for Local – this one has got me thinking about new micro-publishing mash-up business ideas… More on that after a few more beers.

Enteprise search provider Endeca closed funding from SAP and Intel – this over on TC. This interesting in light of the MSFT FAST deal and the Sun MySQL deal. Doesn’t sound like a lot of money, but lets see what happens with Endeca. I keep wondering when will someone do a “redhat” version of open source Lucene?

Internet Trumps Print Directories in Britain – this post again fro Mr Sterling based on a neat report from UK based welovelocal. I Love it, lets recycle all those print directories! Save the trees.

Publishers’ vertical search can rival Google, says AOP forum – not sure I agree, but I have to say job well done to my buddy Simon Baptist who gave one of the presentations. My sources tell me he did a great job. Nice one!

Various Things from the Past Few Weeks

Nothing new in this post. This is just a list of some of the interesting things I noticed over the past couple of weeks and want to dig into when I get some down time over the X-Mas holiday…

Ask release 2007 search data:

Ask.com’s Top Real Deal Searches of 2007
1. MySpace 6. Cars
2. Dictionary 7. Weather
3. Google 8. Games
4. Themes 9. Song Lyrics
5. Area Codes 10. Movies

Greg Sterling has a summary from GYM, Ask and AOL… Also on GS a guest piece from UK based We Love Local guy. The power or power searchers at JB’s searchblog. Facebook v. Newspapers.

Apparently total measurable ad spend is slowing, this is interesting has having spent time blogging and exploring the social media side of the Web over the past couple of months I can see that smart advertisers and marketers will be doing other types of activities that support advertising. This is meme that ties into the global microbrand idea and what Buzzmachine posted as well. This requires some digestion.

Glam-normous Network Effect?

I read about this in today’s printed edition of the Guardian. The original post by Jeff Jarvis is a very interesting piece. The model that Glam are using sounds like a very solid and one all media groups should seriously consider – I like it. However, I believe there are many other smaller networks attempting similar strategies.

News 2.0 – Daily Me and News at Seven

Both of these news sites/services look very cool. I am going to try them both out. They both look very different. Daily Me looks like a great approach for pulling together a personalised newspaper online and even gives you the option to print (they work with many major news organisations). While News at Seven is a very Web 2.x looking service – as you get an avatar to read your news show. This could be fun…

US Newspaper Ad Alliance Rumor

There is an interesting rumor reported on Mashable about a possible newspaper ad network alliance:

Five of the nation’s largest newspaper publishers are rumored to be working on their own online advertising network. Such a network would allow advertisers to buy advertising from one central destination, and include 7 of the top 10 markets in the US according to the report.

This would sync up with news of the Yahoo! newspaper partnerships being on the ropes. R/W also has a piece on this.