Every slow Friday turns into a day for rumors, and as it turns out, this one was also a day for discussing the Yellow Pages industry. Now something’s come about that combines the two subjects: a rumor that Google will buy Yell, a UK Yellow Pages company.
Our earlier Yellow Pages story relayed The Kelsey Group’s opinion that now is a pretty good time for the industry to get the hang of the Internet. As such, the rumor is a decent fit. Discussions of a possible Google-Yell deal have gone beyond that superficial level, however, and have resulted in some very different opinions.
Jemima Kiss wrote, “Yell.com has a strong presence in online listings but much more potential . . . . Google is aggressively moving into local advertising and listings are a prime target. . . . Think of Yell integrated with Google Maps – making the incorporated Google Local listings even richer. Then there’s the voice-powered local listings search service and – most critically – Google Mobile.”
But regardless of how well the companies would do together, everything goes out the window if they’re not considering the option. John Battelle knocked on the anonymous source of the rumor, writing, “And I woke up and thought that Google might buy Circuit City out of Chapter 11, so I printed it.”
As with most rumors, this debate lands us in the middle of nowhere, facts-wise. Wait and see.
