I miss my blog and I can’t believe it’s been two weeks since I lasted posted.

The times, they are achanging, and not necessarily in a bad way. Anyhoo…

So, the icrossing funding, purchasing Proxicom thingy. Interesting.

Even more interesting, the perspective offered by Janet Driscoll Miller of Marketing Pilgrim: What the iCrossing Acquisition of Proxicom Says About the State of the SEM Industry.

In short:

What a week itÂ’s been for the business of Social Media. Telecom giant Nokia acquired social media sharing service Twango, the YouTube CNN debates delivered solid ratings and Sun Microsystems said its latest earnings report today will be released on its website 10 minutes before it is distributed to news services.

“Nokia’s unique vision for social media aligns perfectly with Twango,” enthused Jim Laurel, co-founder of Twango.com. “It’s really exciting to imagine what we can achieve by combining our social media experience with the resources of a company that has played such a major role in shaping the mobile landscape.” What makes this noteworthy is that social networking has yet to make the leap to the mobile phone arena. If you recall, late last year Nokia launched musicrecommenders.com, a site that recommends new music based on user’s preferences. With this purchase, Nokia is trying to bridge that divide.

The most popular question I’ve been asked by co-workers, associates and friends upon my arrival has been “why did you leave the Yellow Pages?”. The question doesn’t appear ominous until you consider the smug look on their faces. Immediately, I know what they’re thinking. They’ve read Bill Gates’ now infamous quote “Yellow Pages usage among people below 50 will drop to near zero in the next five years.” Their perception is that I jumped from a sinking ship. This couldn’t be further from the truth.

It reminds me of a scene in Monty PythonÂ’s “Holy Grail”….Â…

Here is this weeks cartoon funny. For those not in the industry, Jim Boykin is a popular figure in the industry, and is credited with coining the term “link ninja”.

Enjoy!

See more Search Engine Funnies!

Andrew Goodman, coopetition in these parts, had a great and insightful post on SearchEngineLand.com today: Load Me Up: Should You Expand Your Retail Niche?

The long and short of it was this: It’s all marketing. Doesn’t matter whether it’s offline or online, it’s all marketing and it needs to live or die by that standards and measurements of marketing. While SEM is more accountable based on conversions, analytics or the like, the reality is each and every campaign, whether online or offline has a minimum performance standard with key performance indicators.

“Content is King” and “It’s not about clicks, it’s about conversions!” Sound familiar? It’s part of the daily SEO professionals vocabulary. Would it surprise you if I said that the Yellow Pages industry has been using these terms for years?

It shouldn’t. In its quest for better measures of accountability, the original search engine has been turning to new metrics such as Engagement and ROI to prove its value, for some time. The three most significant indicators of Yellow Pages value – references, calls to advertisers and influence - % of buyers influenced by Yellow Pages ads - have produced outstanding data for YP Sales Professionals to discuss with their clients.

The new Drew Carey show the Power of Ten, made me realize that user generated content is being employed more and more often to create network ratings.

The premise of the show is simple: The contestant who can most accurately predict the American public’s response to intriguing poll questions could walk away with 10 million dollars.

User generated content has a variety of applications on the airways… generally in one of two ways: Voter results a la country Idol of your choice, or contests a la Survivor, Apprentice or Big Brother.

In June the Quebec news portal Branchez-Vous (freely translated: connect!) bought 51% of Quebec video site TonClip. Since then it has integrated the video site into its main portal, skinning and branding the page as part of Branchez-Vous.

While Branchez-Vous covers a wide area of news, TonClip’s focus since its start in October 2006 had been Quebec video. This does and doesn’t work. TonClip carries a lot of the same material other video sites do. The usual viral videos, gags, jokes, car crashes, music clips, etc.

At the same time it does contain more videos which are at least in the French language. Not all of those come from Quebec, by the way.

(English version) Vous avez vu vos parents le faire. Vous avez besoin d’un plombier? Regarder dans les pages jaunes. Vous d販rez trouver un dentiste? Feuilletez les pages jaunes.

CÂ’est une institution, LA norme, la faæ®® de trouver un commerce prç± de chez vous.

Les Pages Jaunes ont d衵t矬a m鬥 ann裠que les verres de papier ont 赩 inventè±® La m鬥 ann裠que le premier Model T est sorti de la chaí­¥ de production . CÂ’est aussi lÂ’ann裠o�papier cellophane a vu le jour. Nous 賩ons en 1908.

CÂ’est bien vrai: Les Pages Jaunes ont presque cent ans.

Il va de soi, 賡blies 22 ans avant le premier ordinateur analogique (le *differential analyzer*) et 43 ans avant que le premier ordinateur commercial soit mis en march砻( appel硩trangement Univac 1), Les Pages Jaunes ne peuvent qu’esp豥r avoir un avenir similaire �elui des dinosaures. Non?

Faux!

Le r貥au des Pages Jaunes au Canada( maintenu par le Groupe Yellow Pages) se situe au 7eme rang des sites les plus visit豠par les canadiens, atteignant 43% des canadiens en ligne �n rythme de 9.9 millions de visiteurs �haque mois.

C’est un exploit assez remarquable, sp袩alement si l’on consid籥 combien cela demande de travail au niveau des moteurs de recherche d’attraper une part du march矬ocal search.

(version franæ ©se) You saw your parents do it. Need a plumber? Check the Yellow Pages. Find another dentist? Browse the Yellow Pages.

It’s an Institute, the de facto standard for finding a business near you.

The Yellow Pages started in the same year paper cups were invented. The same year the first Ford T’s rolled of the production line. It was the year cellophane was invented. It was 1908.

That’s right: Yellow Pages goes back almost 100 year.