Was Telecom smart to sell Yellow pages? Here was I thinking they had given up on the online market of that empire, but perhaps they just recognised that giving up was the right thing to do, as Google was coming to town.
Here’s what I received just now into my Yahoo!Mail, but there is a catch – it is not from Google, but from envision.FM, and the reply-to is different from the send. Where the heck is FM I wonder? They are offering to get your business onto Google Maps.
They had my (aging) US address details there, which means they got hold of some database (easy to do with $$ in the USA)…
That’s the link to envision.fm.
and you get $100 of adwords for free. While supplies last, because Google adwords are runing out folks…
In that light gray on white fine print disclaimer (not that useful really) it says:
“Basic user listings are submitted to Google in approx. 6 weeks. Professionally managed clients are submitted to Google within 48 hours.”
On the first link (I realy hope it wasn’t a spammer) I get this text disclaimer. Bolding is mine:
“Envisoin is a worldwide provider of quality Google consulting service. Envision has is a Google Enterprise Partner that specializes in helping small business’ to start using Google services, even ones who don’t quite know how to use them.”
That’s right – they got their own name wrong.
Spammers or brilliant marketers? I have no idea…
Lance Wiggs 
I think .fm is an alternative extension (used by some music / radio sites) similar to .tv… Go figure.
You can set up the YellowPages type ads and AdWords via Google Maps – no need for a third party:
http://www.google.com/local/add/lookup?hl=en-US&gl=US
https://adwords.google.com/select/LocalAdsHomepage?sourceid=google-maps&subid=maps-homepage-us
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Google will pay registered ‘referrers’ US$10 per business they sign up to local. http://www.google.com/services/local-business-referrals/repfaq.html
Hence the incentive to spam like this. The firm will probably be a legitimate Google referrer, but that direct mail peice is nasty.
It is only a matter of time before NZ businesses get this sort of thing…
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Lance, I had some informal conversations with some people at Yellow Pages earlier this year prior to the launch of their new service, where I offered to help them in certain functionalities, that might be of interest to their service. I pointed out certain things (algorithms) , that if implemented, it would enhance their online business directory services. They told me, that they would probably do those in the next phase of their development. So, I haven’t heard from them since, in which I assumed that they haven’t start their next phase of development yet.
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Rebecca – go figure indeed. This just reeks of canned ham.
Interesting Ben – that explains it, and it is indeed a nasty piece of spam. What really scares me is that the details they had captured about me were personal, not corporate, which raises serious questions abut where they came from.
Falafulu – I obviously don’t know how the conversations went, but from a sales perspective I wouldn’t assume they’ll call you back.
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Lance said…
sales perspective I wouldn’t assume they’ll call you back
I think you’re right there Lance. I didn’t give them all the refereed computing papers I thought that would be of interest to their development, since I knew that our dialog wasn’t a contract work at all and why should I. I met one of their representative once for a talk about because they wanted to know certain things that they didn’t know how to implement. I only sent them descriptions of the relevant functionalities where they said they had no expertise on and also a few links to published peer review computing papers where they could find the answers to those functionalities, but I didn’t give all the references to all the relevant papers that I know which covers those technologies. This is the way how I do my consulting work. I show a potential client some publications (not all) that are of potential interest to their development and if they agree for a contract to consult them plus development of those technologies, then I give all at that stage, since I am a professional and that is what you should do (all your best). Mostly, the reference papers I give them before any contract is signed, where I know that they are quite hard to be developed (numerical algorithms) and once they read the concept, then they usually come back wanting to do a formal contract. If they like the concept, just by reading the abtract(s) of those papers, which are the easy part (more like executive summary of a document), then they make a decision based on that.
I wondered how are they’re going to compete with Google? Google do invest in R&D heavily and they develop original stuff plus their scientists do read different peer reviewed computing journals regularly in order to be informed of the latest and also to get different ideas of how to improve their technology & service. But do Yellow Page has that vision? The answer is No, based on my informal conversation with one of their staff, that they don’t read peer reviewed publications, not because they’re unavailable (anyone could find them at university library), but because it is something they don’t do. The problem with this, is that you tend to follow what others are doing. Eg, if the trend is SaaS, then you follow that. For companies who are doing original R&D or follow the R&D trends by scouring the peer reviewed literatures, could develop innovative technology without waiting or following what others are doing. Google does original R&D and also keep a tab on other published R&D from around the world, while Yellow Page does not do any of those.
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Lance said…
sales perspective I wouldn’t assume they’ll call you back
Yes, same thing for Ferrit. I did some consulting work for them and I recommended of how Amazon technology work (algorithms). See, Amazon’s technology (not their proprietary stuff) are well publicized in different computing peer review journals by researchers from different countries and you can implement a system like that just by following the methodology or architectures described in the literatures. Amazon’s technology is still a mystery to most web developers or most online retailers, where they think, how on earth is Amazon’s doing it. No, the technology is a hot topic of research by researchers in the area of datamining, and there are a number of different journals that do publish work in that area. So, developers just do need to know where to get those informations, where researcher’s algorithms are published in detail. Technology is always evolved, so what was state of the art last year, is no longer the case this year, since there have been new improved version of last year’s algorithm that has just been published.
If Ferrit wanted to be truely Amazon like in terms of functionality, they would have followed the recommendation that I drafted for them. I didn’t hear from them since my initial consultation, because if those technologies were to be custom developed , then I would be called back to lead those development. I also recommended off the shelf product, if they didn’t want custom development.
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