WebProNews

Local Search Sites Past Peak

Whether it's because of consolidation and pressure from above (Google, Yahoo, etc.), or too much competition from one another, including newer upstarts, traffic to key local search sites appears to have peaked about two years ago.(Disclaimer: I know Alexa isn't 100% accurate, but above the 5,000 rank it's probably roughly accurate.)

How Stumbleupon's Beating Google, Yahoo & MSN

Stumbleupon is one of may favorite social media sites, Not only can it drive traffic that matches or often exceeds that of Digg, stumbleupon users are much less critical/confrontation/judgmental than the typical Digg user.

Plaxo Launches Social Network Pulse

Plaxo launched today its social network, Pulse. Pulse pulls in what they call "people feed" or RSS (Really Simple Syndication) to allow for conversation about the content with your family, friends or co-workers.

Food Fans Have Taste For Online Reviews

Going out to eat should be a pleasant experience. But what do you do when want to find out more about a local restaurant? More than a third of adults have researched online about a restaurant they had not visited before, according to the National Restaurant Association's 2006 research.

Web 2.0 Expo: Venture Capital 2.0

A popular and very funny session today was the session entitled “Venture Capital 2.0: Bright Future or Broken Forever?”. This session was moderated by Mike Arrington of Techcrunch who is a former VC himself and current angel investor. It appeared like it could be boring listen to a bunch of venture capitalists talk, but Arrington did a very nice job spicing it up with well-timed insults and jokes.

Building Blocks Of The Social Web

In a brilliant post on nform.ca, information architect Gene Smith of the Atomiq.org blog outlined the 7 building blocks of social software. This pulls together the work of various people including Matt Webb and Stewart Butterfield and provides a framework that I think is valuable in thinking about social software.

Yelp Poised for Breakout?

Yelp has been the most-watched company in the seemingly-narrow but fast-growing niche of user-generated content specifically with regard to bars, restaurants, and clubs, and "youth" oriented hotspots and retail. For them, it's beginning to expand to the point where they're a bit of a social community and a "go-to" site if you're looking for local review content.

Google Bomb Returns, Hits Microsoft

A user of the Yelp social network managed to add an image to a Google Maps info box displayed for Microsoft's Redmond headquarters that the company probably would not have chosen for itself.

Smart Phones for Smart Bloggers

I have noted a couple of times before that Nokia sent out phones and internet tablets in the past to some bloggers.