robwebb2k

I posted a while back about the backstory to Google’s acquisition of Grand Central being the need to create a artificial clickstream for non-PPC advertising.  Another move was made in that space today.  TechCrunch is reporting that local advertiser Marchex purchased VoiceStar for $28m.  This stuff is so straightforward to do and makes so much sense, it may be that in the near future most local ads have advertisement specific phone numbers.  The only downside is that the advertiser has lots of phone numbers floating around in the ether, but the upside for them could be tremendous.  The challenges presented are the same as always for local:  innumerable small business owners to reach out to who are very set in their ways and are very busy.

It’s surprising to me that Yelp.com is not in the PPC space yet.  Google’s announcement earlier this week that they’re going to pay Joe Citizen $10 per local business profile formally threw down the gauntlet with Yelp, and we know Google is getting Grand Central ready…