AUTHOR: Russell TITLE: Fill 'er Up DATE: 11:56 AM ----- BODY:
A new launch by Picaphone, which aims to create the first international phone directory, caught my eye this week so I decided to check out www.picaphone.com.

After dozens of searches for all types of companies, big and small all yielded no results, I was pushed to an inexorable conclusion: this database nothing in it.

Back to the press release again and I noticed the statement, "The success of this ambitious project depends on the cooperation of web surfers all over the world." Yes, it's all about user-generated content, but with the remarkable goal of trying to collect every telephone directory listing in the world. Imagine how many listings would have to be contributed (and maintained) for this to become a site worthy enough for users to return to repeatedly.

I certainly have no beef with this company's audacious business objective. My point is that the window is rapidly closing for online data ventures that set up shop with a user interface and back-end database and then say to the world, "fill 'er up." Why? Very simply, the novelty factor is gone. That's why last year's Data Content Conference featured companies such as Snooth and BrownBook. Both these companies see user-generated content as integral to their success, but both started out supplying an initial dataset that delivered value while encouraging users to augment this information. With this approach, these companies deliver value to users immediately, rather than hoping magic will happen and users will do a credible (and rapid) job building out the database from scratch. I'd go so far as to argue that the bigger the scope of a user-generated database product, the more important to provide an initial dataset.

But what about companies like Jigsaw and Linked-In you may properly ask. These two very successful databases were built entirely from user-generated content. To this I would respond that these companies caught the wave of early excitement around user-generated content, so they had great timing going for them. I'd also argue that these databases, while they certainly became more valuable as they got bigger, were still able to deliver value to users while quite small. Think about it: both Jigsaw and Linked-In could deliver some value to users with 50,000 names; a database claiming to be a global telephone directory cannot.User-generated content certainly isn't dying; in fact where user-generated content augments a publisher's existing database it is very much alive and well. User-generated data products where the database starts completely empty are also lacking much promise.

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----- -------- AUTHOR: Russell TITLE: User-Generated Sales DATE: 3:43 PM ----- BODY:
In February of this year, I brought to your attention a UK-based online yellow pages start-up called BrownBook.net. While online yellow pages is a crowded and generally unremarkable category of online content, BrownBook was coming at it with a fresh and audacious approach by relying on the wiki model. Yes, user-generated content for yellow pages.

We know wikis can work. Just look at the success of Wikipedia. We know that databases can be built with user-generated content. Witness both Jigsaw and LinkedIn (both former InfoCommerce Models of Excellence winners). But the general thinking to date has been that users will contribute only when they're passionate about a topic or there's something in it for them. Most would agree that "yellow pages" and "passion" are rarely seen in the same sentence.

Despite this, BrownBook has persevered with this new approach, and by all reports, it's working. Strong site metrics are suggesting BrownBook may be onto something big with this innovative model.

Not content simply to revolutionize how yellow pages databases are built and maintained, BrownBook has just announced an equally remarkable innovation: it wants to turn its registered users into a commission sales force.

In a nutshell, if a registered user of BrownBook contributes content about a business, and that business later pays to enhance its listing, the registered user receives a portion of that revenue. But to make things more interesting, this isn't a one-time payment. It's a lifetime commission stream to that user as long as that business remains an advertiser. So while users can likely make a few dollars passively, they can potentially make a lot of money by actively encouraging the businesses they write about to advertise in BrownBook, and to remain advertisers in BrownBook as well. Consider too the potentially viral aspects of this model as BrownBook users start to receive checks, initially for not doing anything. It won't take them long to spread the word to their friends and recognize that by talking up BrownBook to their favorite retailers, they can develop a nice stream of ongoing cash.The best way to get the full story on BrownBook is to be at InfoCommerce 2008 in Philadelphia - just 16 days from now - where you can hear Marc Lyne, BrownBook's co-founder, on our kick-off Meet the Evolutionaries" panel. See you there ...

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----- -------- AUTHOR: Russell TITLE: Good Vibrations DATE: 1:51 PM ----- BODY:
One thing that's been curiously missing from the social networking/user-generated content frenzy of the past few years has been efforts to harness these concepts to build good company databases. It's particularly surprising given the success of professional sites such as Jigsaw and Linked-In, both of which have built remarkably robust databases of business professionals. But where's the company information?

We have seen a few attempts at letting users build out company content. Two basic models have been employed to date: a "backbone" model, where users can append comments to a fixed list of companies, and the publisher takes on the task of maintaining basic company contact details. Successful examples of this model include Yahoo Finance, Vault.com and start-up yellow pages sites such as BrownBook. The other model is "free-form" model where users decide what companies to cover and in what way, with the publisher supplying no content, and few if any restrictions. One infamous example of this was the F*ckedCompany.com site, now mercifully defunct. We're seeing more and more company profiles within Wikipedia, but they tend to get lost in this vast online encyclopedia.

Will people take the time to contribute to an open access company database? Can such a database rise above angry posts from disgruntled employees and disinformation from disingenuous competitors? Will people share valuable inside information about firms? Will individuals maintain constantly changing company information? Well, it seems we may be about to find out.

A new company, TradeVibes.com, still in beta, is aiming to become a user-generated company database. It rolls together wiki-like features with rating systems, company discussion board, job boards and more. It also offers a strong organizational taxonomy to allow discovery of companies in addition to research on known companies. It may very well be a glimpse of the future.

There's a lot of fresh thinking going on at TradeVibes, and a lot to commend its content model. If TradeVibes can get critical market traction, it could herald the next big thing in the data world: high-value, user- generated company information.

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----- COMMENT: AUTHOR:Anonymous John DATE:3/31/08 8:19 PM Hi Russell,

Interesting article. As I last heard it LinkedIn just launched their company profiles. One thing I'm curious about (and full disclosure here that I work for them) is why no mention of Spoke when talking about Jigsaw & LinkedIn as data services with company information.

www.Spoke.com has more than twice the people (40 million businesspeople profiles) & over 2.3 million compnay profiles. We even give members of any company the ability to come in and update incorrect or outdated company information, provided they prove they work for that company with a verified corporate e-mail address.

What are your thoughts on giving full reign to people to control company information? Isn't that the domain of company (e.g. public companies can't have people making false claims about their annual revenues, their HQ address, etc. or face consequences from the SEC)? ----- -------- AUTHOR: Russell TITLE: Is Brown the New Yellow? DATE: 1:03 PM ----- BODY:
I have been saying for many years now that the continuing financial success of the yellow pages industry is due more to inertia than innovation. The only reason the industry hasn't followed the rapid downward spiral of the newspaper industry is its huge market momentum and unusual business model which provides strong competitive defenses. But as we all well know, the Internet has a funny habit of trashing old business models while simultaneously leveling the competitive playing field.

The sublime magic of yellow pages has always been that the advertising is the content. The layer of free content that yellow pages provide is a thin one indeed. Once a yellow pages directory reaches a critical mass of advertising, there's enough content to make it useful to consumers, spurring rapid user adoption. And with rapid user adoption, there is the opportunity to charge a lot more for advertising, something yellow pages publishers do with gusto.

As I said: an incredible business model. But it's not a model you can expand too quickly on a geographic basis, because as you scale, getting a critical mass of advertising becomes harder. At the same time, adding high value content or social networking features isn't a simple alternative. That's because as you add more information about businesses, you decrease their interest in advertising. And advertisers paying thousands of dollars a year haven't shown much interest in ratings or customer comments that they can't control.

Some publishers, such as Zagat and Angie's List, have attempted to flip the model by charging consumers for access to deep and unbiased information on businesses generated by consumers. It's a viable model, but such products are hard to build and grow slowly.

That's why I was intrigued to read the launch announcement for a UK-based online yellow pages called The Brownbook. It's a wiki- based yellow pages. Brownbook supplies the same thin content layer found in all yellow pages (business name, address, phone, business category), then encourages users to add comments and reviews to business listings. Businesses are encouraged to maintain their own listings, and can add a wealth of supplemental information for a modest fee. To get around advertiser's traditional distaste for user comments and ratings, Brownbook neatly addresses the issue by turning it into a marketing opportunity for businesses: burnish your image by resolving negative comments and other issues right on the site, proof of your concern and responsiveness. It's an innovative approach Brownbook can afford to take as a start-up.

Scaling issues still exist (Brownbook offers national coverage), but they are less daunting than for a traditional yellow pages.

Brownbook has a tremendous amount of work in front of it to simultaneously build audience and a base of advertisers. That said, the business model is fresh, interesting and well executed. I might go so far as to say it's exciting -- a word rarely used in the same sentence as yellow pages.

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----- COMMENT: AUTHOR:Blogger Hugh DATE:2/9/08 1:25 PM Interesting site, especially when compared with a similar UK venture, Bizwiki (www.bizwiki.co.uk). Both sites provide the basic framework of a general yellow pages directory, and rely on users and businesses to fill in the rest. I'm somewhat partial to the Bizwiki execution, which to my eye presents a more intuitive and useful interface than Brownbook's Web 2.0 cliches (e.g. the completely useless category tag cloud, currently dominated by "Unisex Hairdresser"). Regardless, both sites have their work cut out for them. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR:Anonymous Anonymous DATE:2/12/08 3:05 PM On the US-side there is also www.ibegin.com ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR:Anonymous Matt DATE:2/15/08 6:59 PM I’m part of the team working on Bizwiki so thanks for the comparison, Hugh. I absolutely agree with Russell’s article, the amount of information available from traditional ‘yellow pages’ publishers is generally very thin, and there is a demand for more depth –particularly from internet users.
The challenge in the wiki-based model is of both building up the audience size that will help generate the additional depth of content, and of building up enough additional content to attract the audience. It can sound a bit like ‘the chicken and the egg’ riddle, but fortunately we’ve been very happy with the speed our user base has been growing, with almost three thousand people signed up to edit and add records already and more joining every day.
It’s probably worth mentioning that businesses are invited to sign up and maintain listings on Bizwiki without the fee that Russell mentioned Brown Books charges, which I will admit probably makes our approach easier! Good luck to them, though, there is obviously increasing demand for something beyond the basic address details about companies online.
As a final note, work is already in progress on Bizwiki.com, the Business Wiki for the US. ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR:Blogger hendry DATE:3/13/08 1:16 PM An interesting space indeed and one that we will enter next month with www.wecando.biz. Ours has a twist though - it exploits the medium of social networking to spread usage and ensure that the recommendations are more relevant. There are a few companies entering this space, a few still who have been in it for a while, and it will take a lot to illustrate value over Yell, Scoot and Applegate, all of whom win on the sheer number of businesses listed. The ultimate winner will be the one that lists the most businesses and with the most valuable information attached. We look forward to the fight!

Ian Hendry
WeCanDo.BIZ
www.wecando.biz ----- COMMENT: AUTHOR:Blogger streetslocal DATE:9/11/09 9:06 AM www.streetslocal.co.uk have been growing steady since 2007 and now with over 196,000 business owners joining Streets Local we are fast becoming a site that people remember.
Our monthly traffic is up 1000% on last year so www.streetslocal.co.uk is quickly becoming the site to rival brownbook or possibly take over from there crown.
We feel our platform offers more choice to the business owners and offers real value to consumers browsing the site. ----- --------