Amazon.com's A9.com Yellow Pages
Plus: VeriSign drops 14% on ring-tone sluggishness
By Bambi Francisco, MarketWatch
Last Update: 12:26 PM ET Jan 27, 2005
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Five years ago, at the height of the Internet bubble, a company called infoUSA unveiled video yellow pages.
It was too early for the market, as only about 5 percent of households were then on broadband, and the broader public remained unconditioned to go on the Web for local information.
Today, Amazon.com (AMZN) introduced something more palatable -- yellow pages with images.
Palo Alto, Calif.-based A9.com, a subsidiary of Amazon.com, launched A9.com Yellow Pages, which lists 14 million businesses nationwide. A9.com is also letting businesses know that they can list themselves free, unlike the printed yellow pages, which can be costly.
Much like the IYPs -- or Internet yellow pages -- unveiled in the past 18 months from Yahoo (YHOO), Google (GOOG), Verizon (VZ), InfoSpace (INSP) and Ask Jeeves (ASKJ), to name a few, A9.com provides the essentials, like name, address, phone number, pictures, directions, and an interactive map.
What makes A9.com a little different is that it provides "Block View" images that give consumers a feeling that they're standing on that block and viewing the storefront.
For instance, a search for Omni Hotel in San Francisco will result in a page with a picture of the Omni. Lower on the page are seven images of the Omni Hotel that enable users to feel as though they're in the neighborhood. A search for something more ambiguous, like "optical," will result in a number of businesses, with images and the distances from your location. To be expected, not all businesses are listed.
The images make you feel as if you're watching someone's home video. In fact, A9.com even requests that users send in their video or images. While this virtual experience may be useful to some, it may be just bells and whistles for those who want pertinent information, like name, address, directions, and tips on where to park in the area.
The click-to-call link is right next to the phone number, below the name of the business and the address. This feature, fairly new but not unique to A9.com, lets a user type his or her phone number in and request a callback. This feature works sporadically, based on a test of the resource by a MarketWatch reporter.
VeriSign vs. InfoSpace
VeriSign (VRSN) shares dropped Thursday after the company reported fourth-quarter results that failed to meet heightened expectations about the company's ring-tone businesses, Jamster and Jamba.
VeriSign was recently down 11 percent to $26.02.
Jamba, VeriSign's ring-tone business in Europe, delivered $94 million in sales, below expectations of more than $100 million. The heightened expectation followed InfoSpace's (INSP), report earlier this week. InfoSpace, which makes the bulk of its money via advertising, said its mobile revenue grew 250 percent from the prior year to $32.5 million.
InfoSpace projects $375 million to $395 million in sales by the end of this year, with $175 million to $185 million coming from mobile, CEO Jim Voelker told MarketWatch in an interview.
Voelker, who does view VeriSign as a competitor, explained that InfoSpace makes money each time content - like a ring-tone - is downloaded onto a phone. A subscriber typically pays $1 to $2.50 per ring-tone. Voelker also said that if InfoSpace can people to download once, half of them will download again. He said of all people who download once, at least 15 percent of them will download more than half a dozen times over the following two months.
"It appears to be somewhat addictive," he said.
Keeping up with video search
Yahoo launched on Tuesday a search service that enables users to search content on Bloomberg TV, BSkyB and the BBC. Yahoo also unveiled its video-search service on the Web.
On the same day, Google unveiled Google Video, a service that enables users to search for the content of TV programs. Google users will be able to search PBS, the NBA, Fox News and C-Span.
"What Google did for the Web Google Video aims to do for television," said Larry Page, Google co-founder and president of products. "This preview release demonstrates how searching television can work today |
