Localyte is a start up based here in Silicon Valley which I am an advisor to.

Localyte.com has built a growing army of 42,000 local experts in 10,000 destinations across 170 countries. These locals produce geotaged reviews about points of interests (like Restaurants, Museums, Shopping Places, Cafe, Parks, etc.). They have developed a “secret sauce” for growing a worldwide community with very little resources and they also cracked the code for engaging the community to generate reviews about local places in high volume and for free. At current growth rate they expect to have more than 500,000 reviews in the next 12 months. Here’s an example of what they are producing: http://www.localyte.com/places-to-visit/Sri+Lanka?

Watch the video on YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4_c3E2aTxo for more information and an example of how Localyte’s “real time” technologies are helping travelers today enrichen their holiday experiences.

Localyte.com produce high-volume geo-taged local content by using Google Map API.

Over coffee in San Francisco this week with Dax Hamman, Head of Display Media at iCrossing, we  discussed the EU cookie law change. Check out the overview here: http://www.daxthink.com/2009/11/eu-passes-cookie-law-opt-in-required.html.

So when I think of retailers such as BestBuy, Eddie Bauer and advertising networks such as Permuto, I can’t help but realize there are going to be a lot of compliance required – not least of all for management here in Silicon Valley to understand the regulatory changes. Perhaps the consumer age of the Internet is going to take on more of the restrictions that mass marketing channels such as direct mail and tele-marketing services now have to comply with.

When Lily Allen – English singer – left a note saying she’d quit Twitter, 2 things come to mind. Firstly, its annoying even those who are famous. Did Google ever do that? Secondly, what about the 138,541 followers who also are now thinking twice about following someone else. So despite Lily saying she was an “Neo Luddite” I think there are just so many times you want to or have something to say to someone else. The guys up the road in San Francisco at Twitter HQ should be watching carefully as it’s becoming ridiculous how people feel an elephant herd mentality to “tweet” everything. Its like having online tourettes syndrome. Maybe that’s why Lily swears so much in her lyrics!

For the record Twitter was down again today! Probably gave everyone some peace from the tweeting I’m subconsciously hearing these days. One of the secrets of MySpace success was the reputed members which switched from FriendFinder when their service crumbled under a technologically weak infrastructure.

I remember sitting in a meeting in LA in 2005 and listening to people who worked at FriendFinder and them lamenting about how their technology platform failed. The story goes here in Silicon Valley that MySpace picked up lots of dissatisfied FriendFinder customers.

When I hear of Jack Dorsey, who coded Twitter, working on other projects, I put two and two together and voila – we have the real issue. The guy who built the app is not there to oversee it.  I’ve seen shooting stars before and when entrepreneurs see this happening here in Silicon Valley, they pounce. Beware of your trajectory Twitter, programmers who understand scalability and inflection points of customer dissatisfaction are watching.

I like my coffee and find inspiration in sitting with iPhone in one hand, double expresso in the other, flipping the NewYorkTimes.com or other websites around the Content Revenue Strategies Conference we run twice a year – looking for new start ups that need help.

Raised in the coffee capital of Melbourne, Australia, its easy to consume 3-4 cups per day. So now I find myself in cafes from the famous Buck’s of Wooside to Coupa Cafe in Palo Alto to Peets in Menlo Park. Whilst the coffee is different, there is the familiar site of two guys sitting around talking about their start up company. So I’ve noticed that often, the same people go to these cafes and are often talking to different people. They have a knack for striking up conversations with others and so welcome to Silicon Valley, where coffee is helping – as it has done for centuries – people pitch ideas to each other.

I was in London in the previous weeks and visited the BBC on several occaisions. The full impact of the Internet dawned upon me as the plans were unveiled to launch the BBC.com to the world in Q1, 2010. It is a milestone that my firm, SearchForecast can work with the technical leaders at the BBC to help architect the structure of how that content can be maximized for search engines.

Geodelic – which I’m an advisor of – continues to make an impact with T-Mobile myTouch 3G (branded by Google) – which is redefining how the global mobile web evolves. Geodelic software powers the Sherpa application on the phone which learns user behavior and then present information that is customized to each user. That’s mobile local search in the future folks!At breakfast in New York this morning, Saj Sahay, director of product innovation, T-Mobile USA said “The amazing thing about Sherpa is that it learns your favorite types of locations and preferences over time and the more you use it, the better it knows you. MyTouch is all about putting you at the center of the device experience and Sherpa is a shining example of this true, powerful personalization.”Watch the Geodelic Video on ABC Online interview with Autumn Radtke. It can be preordered from T-Mobile’s web site starting today for $200. Deliveries will start on or about August 5.

Having just read the article on Twitter in Time Magazine, and having been involved in some Silicon Valley venture capital meetings around Twitter apps, the most important element to consider is the “noise to value ratio” which measures the number of tweets to the number of relevant tweets a user experiences. Whilst no-one can dispute the “real time” benefits that Twitter offer, I’ve just experienced two Twitter-esque start ups not recieving funding because Venture Capitalists were concerned about the limited value versus volume of tweets. Relevance is key for advertisers and knowing Google so well, I realize that blog posts may become shorter due to Twitter’s 140 character competitor threat but there is something inherently more valuable in expressing an idea beyond a tweet which readers value more.

Follow us here on SearchForecast Twitter

We extend our congratulations to the Campbell Family for a successful election victory in British Columbia, Canada – earlier this month. SearchForecast was able to provide some advice on search engine optimization for the campaign and provided online marketing advice to their campaign team. It is a fascinating process to be involved in given the constant media coverage and impact that search engines – like Google and Yahoo! – have on the imagery, messaging and perception the public at large has of political personalities and party policy.

AdSpace was a huge success with over 500 people attending the conference on 22nd April at Moscone Centre West. My thanks to all the team and speakers as well as sponsors…. here’s one of the signs on the show floor!  We also received some great media coverage as well:  http://www.siliconbeat.com/2009/04/23/conference-features-money-making-tips-for-web-publishers a