The Big News of the day is undoubtedly Google’s $3.1
billion purchase of DoubleClick. After all, you can read about here…and here…and here. Oh, and here. And then of
course there is the news of the reaction from AOL, Yahoo, Microsoft, and all
their pals as they cry, “Hey! No fair!” You can read that here – and here. In fact, I think it is safe to say that this deal is dominating
the news today like a 5^th grade bully. Or, for a closer metaphor,
like the State of the Union – even when it’s a whole lot about nothing.

But it’s not as if nothing else is
happening in the world – online or off. What happens to all the little bits of
news that fall by the wayside? They might have otherwise had a chance at the
big time, but tragically were overshadowed by this acquisition. I mean, on the day that Reagan died, the Berlin wall fell, or Britney shaved her head, scientists in the Amazon may have discovered a new species of toad, or other offbeat news might have occurred that was subsequently pushed
to the bottom of the page. “Rats!” they thought. If only we’d been a day
earlier – or later. It’s all about the timing.

Let’s go one step further: what about personal news? The Internet has enabled each of us to be our own beat reporter,
hot on the story of our lives. For example, yesterday I tried matcha tea for the first time.
It was marvelous. I could also report that there is something
obscene written in Flemish with a purple Sharpie on my left forearm and that I am having
difficulties removing it. Finally, my breaking news of the day: I am closing a
deal that involves the $3.10 acquisition of a new Uniballer pen.

So, forget Google, forget DoubleClick –
heck, forget Sallie Mae, al-Sadr, and the Boston Marathon.

What’s your news?

The cold and rainy days of a San Francisco winter seem like years ago, but it was just last week that we took haven in the friendly offices of Blackfoot, Inc., to catch up with Founder and CEO Martin Wesley.

He explained many things to us, ranging from skewed metrics, to customized data architecture, to how to make business decisions at 9am. (We’re still working on that last one.) We found it to be an overall educational experience, and thought we’d share it with you, too.

So, turn off PBS, if they haven’t already declared bankruptcy. Tune in to AxleTV for the six-part series on Blackfoot’s integrated data analytics platform. It’s good stuff.

Media execs spent 18% of their Q3 online display ad budgets on "local" properties – according to a new Mediapost/Deutche Bank report. (Mediapost) This is up from 13% in Q1 and Q2.

Jupiter Research released a report that projects local online advertising (mostly classifieds and paid search)to increase 26% over 2004 – to $3.2 billion. (Clickz) That same report projects the local sector to grow to $5.3 billion by 2010.

Borell Associates also released a report on the online local ad sector – projecting 2005 revenue at $4.1 billion. (Clickz) BA’s five year projections have online local advertising surging to $8.6 billion.

Mediapost reports that research company Borrell Associates, Inc. released a report ("2006 Outlook: Local Online Growth Continues–for Some") finding:

• Local online ad spending is projected to climb from $3.73 billion in 2005 to $4.78 billion in 2006
• Paid Local Search is projected to nearly triple – from $347 million in 2005 to $907 million in 2006
• Paid Local Search is projected to hit $4.07 billion by 2010 of a $34.1 billion online ad market