Google, ReachLocal Fashion Strategic Alliance

A recent round of funding netted $55.2 million for ReachLocal.  A new strategic alliance is pretty important, too, however, as the company just became an Authorized AdWords Reseller.

Yes, there’s nothing quite like cozying up to Google, and in addition to its relationship with the search giant, ReachLocal has established bonds with Yahoo, MSN, and Ask.  Still, Zorik Gordon, ReachLocal’s co-founder and CEO, stated, "Google is an instrumental part of our core business, and we look forward to continuing to work together as ReachLocal rapidly expands into markets around the world."

That core business involves providing online marketing to small- and medium-sized businesses, by the way.  Also, as you might have guessed, it looks like everything will continue to work out well for ReachLocal.

Going beyond the press release-ese, Kevin Heisler notes, "The deal gives ReachLocal a leg up on competitors in local search who won’t benefit from the same status in the Google ecosystem.  There’s a long track record of authorized resellers of search engine advertising products succeeding in the hyper-competitive PPC channel."

Finally, according to Piper Jaffray, there are signs that online advertising may be one of the safest places (financially speaking) to hide out in 2008.