YellowPages Logo
(Photo Credit: YellowPages.com)

Yellowpages.com will begin providing ads to Microsoft in early April. No financial terms were released. Under the agreement, ad listings will appear on local sites including MSN Live Search and Live Search Maps, AT&T said.

The agreement gives Yellowpages advertisers access to Microsoft’s search pages. The deal increased the total number of estimated monthly searchers and brings the total number of projected monthly searches on Yellowpages to over 160 million.

Yellowpages replaces Idearc ‘s Superpages.com service. Idearc said the Microsoft partnership had not worked out well.

"The traffic from MSN had not met our expectations and had not performed as we had hoped, so we would not have renewed that agreement without significant changes," spokeswoman Mary De La Garza told Dow Jones Newswires. "We are continuing to pursue other opportunities for our advertisers – given that we have a performance-based model and a different strategy than MSN."

Yellowpages.com made $600 million last year, and estimates revenue from the business and ads from wireless and U-Verse to be about %1.5 billion by 2010.

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Previously, the primary component of user content on the site was limited to user ratings and reviews associated with business listings.

Some of the new features this recent upgrade added include allowing all users to enhance basic biz profile information, uploading pictures of organizations, wiki-like biz listing “blog” features which could allow simplistic blogging by businesses and/or could be used as a consumer comment or Q/A zone for each business since any user could submit info to them.

Of all the top online yellow pages and local search sites, I believe that Superpages may now have the distinction of having the greatest variety of Web 2.0 features. Out of Local.com, DexKnows, Yellowpages.com, YellowBook, Citysearch, and Google Maps — none of them have photos + ratings/reviews + “blogs” + user-provided profile data. Only Yahoo Local really approaches this number of user-content features, I believe. Out of all of the top IYP and local search sites, only Yahoo Local and Superpages openly invite any users to supply photos for locations — Google Maps only allows business owners and content partners to supply photos.

Now, I can see that they may still be working a few of the kinks out in these new services, and the display of this new content seems a little bit siloed or distanced from the business’s profile page, requiring a click to see it. But, I expect these are things which will evolve and expand as they get more content added in. There’s always something of a chicken-or-egg dilemma when adding new content like this to sites — stuff can look a little sad when there’s little content, but it’s hard to get content without making the features really visually apparent.

But, critique of the implementation aside, Superpages appears to be keeping a ahead of the game by striving to differentiate themselves from the competition in terms of these new user features, along with the robust data sources and diverse ad products they already had.

You may recall that Superpages recently brought their video ads out of beta release, and they also acquired Switchboard.com and announced plans to deploy local content through Microsoft Windows Live Messenger via a partnership with Multiplied Media. Just before that, Idearc acquired the LocalSearch.com domain name along with some portion of ownership of AmericanTowns.com (a company which has substantial local information sites and content).

There’s an arms race that’s been going on for quite some time in the local space wherein the yellow pages directory sites and local search engines have all been seeking to outpace each other by ramping up on product features and richness of data. With the recent flurry of multiple announcements and deployments of new functionality and distribution channels, you can see that Superpages is aggressively working to outpace the competition and make it challenging for others to match their suite of features. The programming for such stuff is relatively easy in some cases, but the logistics involved in managing quality issues can be expensive — you don’t want people adding malicious or obscene images to businesses, so it requires human auditing to keep the quality up.

I think these recent changes may begin to transform their info pages from being the traditional business profiles into something more like dynamic information clusters around businesses.

The strategy could be worth it in terms of driving user loyalty and in helping to differentiate from the competition. The interest and adoption of sites like Yelp.com have demonstrated that user communities can effectively be built around directory information sites, so user-generated content could be the next frontier for IYP, if it can be done in an affordable manner that doesn’t degrade quality.

Obviously, a prime motivating factor behind all this pumping of investment capital into Superpages.com is Idearc’s expectation that revenues on the legacy print side of the house may continue to decline. In the recent figures from Idearc’s third-quarter financials, Idearc’s stock took a heavy beating, in part because of a 3% fall in print revenue. Lehman Brothers analyst Anthony DiClemente stated:

“I think the concern from investors is that you are seeing the transition of the business to electronic from print faster than expected.”

Hmmm…. it sounds a bit like my theory that Google Trends could be indicating a pretty fast slump for traditional yellow pages usage might actually have some basis. But, I digress.

Idearc’s not taking the paradigm shift laying down — the cagey adoption of Web 2.0 hallmarks on top of the solidly-performing product will help them keep ahead in the local search game.

(Disclosure: I used to work for Idearc Superpages.com and you can reasonably consider that I might still hold stock and/or options from them. Despite this, I do try to write objectively about them and the local search industry in general. Heck, I’ve even been accused recently of being biased against yellow pages for stuff I write. Even so, I just want to state for the record that this article is an opinion piece by me with no intention of influencing stock prices, and you shouldn’t be basing stock purchase decisions on me anyway. After all, I’m *still* stinging a bit from my stock losses suffered during the dot-com bust!)

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"YellowUSA.com’s unique search platform gives Superpages.com advertisers exposure to traffic that is both geographically and categorically targeted," said Eric Chandler, President – Internet for Idearc Media.

"As the local search expert, we are pleased to partner with YellowUSA.com to extend our advertisers’ content over their local search platform."

YellowUSA.com, is a local search service, that offers information on businesses, from restaurants and retail, to travel and professional services.

"YellowUSA.com provides one of the most comprehensive local search services," said Tahl Kopel, President of YellowUSA.com. "The integration of Superpages.com advertisers into our site gives us the ability to offer local and national advertisers access to the targeted, quality traffic they need to drive their advertising campaigns."

In 2006, Superpages.com, the expert in local search, had more than 2.8 billion network searches and more than 18 million small-to-medium-sized business listings in the United States, 11 million of which feature enhanced content.

Andrew Shane of Idearc told WebProNews that Idearc would be retaining the Switchboard.com domain name. The purchase of Switchboard.com and other InfoSpace directory assets will increase the scale of Idearc’s online directory platform, Superpages.com and benefit Idearc advertisers who will be seen by more consumers.

"This transaction is consistent with our strategy of driving revenue generation across multiple platforms," said Kathy Harless, President and CEO.

"With the addition of Switchboard.com and its associated networks, we are increasing the scale of our fast-growing local search platform, enabling our advertisers’ content to reach even more consumers and boosting our high-quality organic Internet traffic base."

InfoSpace, whose board approved the deal, operates metasearch site dogpile.com along with other search sites. The company said it plans to give proceeds of the sale to stockholders through cash distribution.

The deal is expected to be completed in the next 30 to 60 days.

"This acquisition is an excellent fit with our existing operations and creates a significant opportunity for us to monetize our local search inventory," said Harless.

"We are excited about the additional value and quality traffic this deal brings to our portfolio and the related value proposition to our advertisers."

"With the evolution of the Internet space from an Internet Yellow Pages model to a local search model, the value of the LocalSearch.com URL is enhanced. This asset affords us the opportunity to develop a pure local search site through which we can further monetize our performance-based advertiser commitments in addition to Superpages.com," said Eric Chandler, President – Internet for Idearc Media.

Under the terms of the deal, Idearc will receive ownership and all rights to the LocalSearch.com URL and domain name. With the strategic investment Idearc will receive an equity interest in AmericanTowns.com and the companies will share content and traffic.

AmericanTowns will use proceeds from this transaction to grow its site and add more new tools for community groups.

"Our relationship with Idearc provides AmericanTowns.com a strategic relationship with a premier local search portal that clearly moves quickly and understands the local space. Idearc’s extensive business information and related capabilities are a perfect complement to our community information and focus," said Ted Buerger, Chairman, AmericanTowns, LLC.

Superpages Serves Up BlackBerry Application

The app, called Superpages Mobile for BlackBerry, offers everything you’d expect, including movie info, business listings, mapping, weather, and a “People Finder.”  And the name – I’m betting you could have guessed the name.  Anyway, that feature list is fine, and measures up to a lot of the other contenders in the market.  There doesn’t seem to be any way in which the Superpages product stands out, though.

In fact, a writer at BerryReview.com states, “Personally I found that Beyond411 worked better every time and has GPS support but another free application cannot hurt.  The program could use a little bit of polish but works like a charm.”

That mixed performance may be good enough to grab a considerable market share, and the Superpages brand name won’t hurt anything.  In a press release put out by Idearc Media (the publisher of Superpages), Eric Chandler, the company’s “President – Internet,” reasoned, “Mobile users, especially those who travel frequently, increasingly want more local information no matter where they are.”

I’ll now thank any BlackBerry users who have stuck around to this point in the article.  I know it was a strain; you may now return to your machines.

Verizon’s Idearc began trading today at the New York Stock Exchange while Verizon YellowPages survives the spin off.

Idearc was intended to be, according to the company’s media website, “A multi-platform media company with the most innovative ways of connecting buyers with sellers, making consumers better shoppers and businesses more successful.”

The purpose of the site is to assist consumers in finding what they desire in a time efficient and simple manner and includes over 17 million businesses in the United States.

Because of parent company Verizon’s established reputation, with their print directories in over 35 million homes, Idearc already has an extensive consumer base.

Idearc also assists businesses in leading consumers to their products. The site even features a “value promise” to the businesses that place their ads on Idearc Yellow Pages, which states that they will make as many cost-effective solutions available as possible.

Average return on investments, or ROI, for companies who advertise their business on yellow pages is $21 for every $1 spent. Other forms of media, including newspaper and billboard, have proven to yield a much smaller ROI than those attained through online advertising.

Idearc is the official distributor of Verizon’s print directories, distributing 136 Verizon Yellow Pages and White Pages to 35 states per year.

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Autmn Davis is a staff writer for WebProNews covering ebusiness and technology.