Google Crosses the Rubicon

It's no secret that Google and its brethren have been feverishly working for several years now to crack the local business advertising market, historically the province of yellow pages publishers. However, despite endless resources and top programming talent, Google has apparently concluded that you can't organize information that doesn't exist. There's just not enough information available online on most of these small, locally-focused businesses.

Of course if you've got boundless self-confidence (and billions in the bank), no problem seems insurmountable. That's the genesis of Google's new "Local Business Referral Program." While there's a sales element to this program, the bottom line is that Google is beginning to compile a proprietary national database of local businesses.

Google's vision is to have a fleet of independent contractors running around the country, collecting information on local businesses and snapping pictures of them. Bounty: $10 per listing if the company verifies the collected data.

Job requirement are minimal: love of the Internet, access to a digital camera, and ability to fill out a W-9 that won't get kicked back by the feds. Forgive me for chuckling at the visual picture of the workforce this program is likely to attract.

There's some indication that Google expects this supremely qualified force to "talk up" the benefits of advertising with Google, but this seems secondary to what is clearly a major data compilation exercise.

What particularly intrigues me is that Google does not appear to be assigning companies to its contractors to interview. If they should all decide to visit only pizza parlors and drug stores, that's apparently okay to Google. Even more surprising is that Google won't pay a contractor if some other contractor got to the company first. How many times will you have your work rejected before you give up in disgust? Similarly, after being hit up by multiple Google contractors for the same information, how many local businesses will conclude Google is not cutting edge, but out of control?

Of course, those of us in the business know that gathering data is nothing compared to maintaining it. I presume that Google expects all these businesses to self-maintain their data using a handy web page. If only the information business was that easy.

Though Google's foray into the data business -- at least in its early stage -- seems a bit amateurish, it has now crossed the Rubicon. It has moved from organizing data to building proprietary databases, and seems willing to do so on a massive scale. While most of us have chosen to view Google as a "frenemy" to date, this is a profound move, perhaps more profound than even Google realizes.

Labels: frenemy, google, local business referral program

LexisNexis Launches Pay Per Call Service

LexisNexis last week launched Martindale-Hubbell Attorney Match--Direct Call Service, a pay per call service that will be hosted on the newly launched attorneys.com assisted search lawyer directory. LexisNexis worked with pay per call advertising provider Ingenio Inc. to create the Direct Call Service.

When they sign on (with a set-up fee) to Attorney Match--Direct Call Service, attorneys advertise, but are only billed for calls they receive in response to their ads. Law firms that subscribe to the service will receive phone calls via attorneys.com, lawyers.com, and the Ingenio advertising network of Web search engines, Internet Yellow Pages directories, mobile search providers and free directory assistance services. Attorneys can set the price they want to pay for phone calls received.

LexisNexis officials believe that Attorney Match--Direct Call Service is a complementary service to Martindale-Hubbell's Attorney Match--Email Inquiry Service, which sends email inquiries from potential clients to a subscriber's in-box. Both services enable attorneys to easily recognize the value of their marketing efforts.

Pay per call is very important in the business-to-business world because very few transactions are actually entirely concluded online. The same is most likely true for legal transactions, especially since potential clients usually prefer verbal contact with a legal professional. Online services such as attorneys.com are great for the client who needs to identify an appropriate attorney and for the attorney who wants to be found. But web pages, which are great for finding background information, can only do so much. Pay per call services are really a necessary component to help close a deal. With the direct call service and the email service, LexisNexis has all its clients' marketing bases covered.

A Big Win for CoStar

CoStar Group, an information service provider focused on the commercial real estate industry, has formed an alliance with the Certified Commercial Investment Member (CCIM) Institute to provide CCIM members with online access to CoStar's database of researched and verified commercial property listings. Members will have access to all for sale listings in the U.S. that are included in the CoStar database in addition to lease listings in each member's local market.

While members will be able to search the CoStar database, they will also be able to list their own for sale properties in the database--increasing their reach to CoStar's subscribers (which include investors and brokers).

The partnership will also enable CCIM members to access CoStar Connect, a service that lets brokers and owners post their own for lease and for sale listings on their own web sites using CoStar's listing information and building photos. CoStar Connect automatically updates and manages customers' online property information.

This deal with CCIM is a big win for CoStar, as competition in the commercial real estate listings space continues to strengthen. CoStar and its nearest competitor, LoopNet, are trying to position themselves as the workflow platform of choice for the industry. Working with CCIM, which is an affiliate of the National Association of Realtors, will definitely help CoStar raise its profile within the industry and offering tools such as CoStar Connect will also help motivate members to regularly utilize that and all of CoStar's features. The alliance undoubtedly expands CoStar's reach--more than 8,700 commercial real estate practitioners hold the CCIM designation.

Standard & Poor's Launches New Integrated Product

Standard & Poor's has partnered with Sky Road LLC, a hosted trading solutions services provider to the hedge fund industry, to enable S&P to access the company's real-time credit data in an integrated, cross-asset management platform. Both companies expect the partnership will help customers (such as portfolio managers, compliance officers and risk officers) more efficiently obtain S&P Credit Ratings.

The integration of the Credit Ratings into Sky Road's ASP platform will yield several capabilities for users, including front-to-back office functionality, portfolio and risk management, custom analytics, market data integration, automated prime broker and fund administrator connectivity and workflows, and disaster recovery.

Capabilities such as these are a requirement today. Customers demand tools that are fully integrated into the workflow and combining S&P's content with Sky Road's technology will effectively accomplish that for S&P's hedge fund customers. The announcement of this alliance is certainly not a surprise. S&P has been very receptive to customers' changing needs, while being equally receptive to the latest technology that responds to increasing customer demands.

KnowledgeStorm Adds Blog Collection to Portfolio

KnowledgeStorm, a search resource of technology solutions and information, has launched FindTech Blogs (www.findtechblogs.com), a collection of blog sites geared toward business-to-business and technology professionals. The site also organizes aggregated blog content into categories so user can more easily find topics of interest. Users will also be able to locate relevant technology solution vendors, who will be represented on the site through sponsorships and online advertising. FindTech Blogs is an extension of other offerings available from KnowledgeStorm, such as the FindTech vertical search engine (which is also geared toward technology professionals) and FindTech Insights, a websites that offers in-depth news, research and analysis on recent and noteworthy technology topics and trends.

Among the features of FindTech Blogs is the inclusion of "spotlight bloggers," vendor neutral experts enlisted by KnowledgeStorm to address each topic category. New bloggers can also express their opinions on the site. FindTech Blogs allows them to create their own blog, while enabling existing bloggers to syndicate their blogs for free. KnowledgeStorm monitors the content to ensure it is classified in appropriate categories. Each page contains online advertising and links to vendor content located on KnowledgeStorm.com.

KnowledgeStorm is using technology from iUpload to run the new site. iUpload uses a collection of blogging, Wiki and content management tools to meet the needs of this new offering.

KnowledgeStorm has made a name for itself as a resource for technology professionals. This new launch just helps further solidify the company as a complete source of technology-related content offerings. As blogs continue to increase in number and rise in popularity, there is certainly a need for a site that can organize them so interested readers can find this unique content. KnowledgeStorm is definitely qualified to be that site. Look for the company to launch sites targeted toward other content.