The Smalltown Blog

Happy Belated Birthday

Hal Rucker — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 08:52:27 -0800

I just remembered that Smalltown turned 4 years old this month. Happy Birthday to everyone at Smalltown, and congratulations for surviving this long on one round of funding.

- Hal Rucker

Free Speech and User Generated Content

Hal Rucker — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 16:54:45 -0800

There is an interesting article today at SFGate regarding a small business owner who is suing a Yelp user who wrote a negative review of the business owner's billing policies.

SFGate Article ->

Although nobody likes a lawsuit, the case will be a good story to follow because both sides of the suit seem to be reasonable people with valid points of view, thus forcing the issues surrounding free speech rights and user generated content that is quantitatively damaging to a person or SMB.

IMHO: the key questions have to do with the rights of both parties and their abilities to communicate their points of view. Therefore, the discussion should include the question of whether the platform enabled both parties to debate on a level stage. A website that provides forums can easily claim to be content agnostic because they allow everyone equal opportunity to express themselves. But does a site that encourages reviews of businesses, like Yelp, have an implied obligation to provide businesses an equally powerful toolset for responding to reviews?

Added 01.09.08

There was an excellent discussion of this topic this morning on KQED radio show Forum. You can listen to it here:

listen ->

Again, my opinion is that the most important consideration is for reviewers AND business owners to have equal access to methods of communication. Yelp has a bit of this. Other sites exploit it to charge businesses for the features they need to defend themselves. At Smalltown, we have a feature called ReplyBack that enables all users, including the business reviewed, to create and respond to comments and reviews.

Added 01.13.08

Another Yelp lawsuit covered today:

SFGate ->

- Hal Rucker

Administrator's Control Panel Redesign

Hal Rucker — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 16:49:41 -0800

Smalltown's hosted solution includes a Web-based tool for doing administrative tasks such as responding to customer inquiries, managing content and running reports on site activity. Today we completed the redesign of the user interface for the software; now it's much easier for Smalltown site administrators to interact with their respective destinations.

(click image to enlarge)

- Hal Rucker

We Launched a New Smalltown Corporate Website Today

Hal Rucker — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 15:20:48 -0800

It's been over two years since we launched our corporate website. A lot has happened at Smalltown since then, and we finally found the time to redesign www.smalltown.com. The site has expanded to include information about our newest offerings: The Smalltown Hosted Solution and the Webcard Reseller Program

We also used this opportunity to resolve some branding inconsistencies between Smalltown® and Webcard™ listings. Now there is a more integrated look and feel. Let us know if you find any typos or broken links ;-)

(click image to enlarge)

- Hal Rucker

Smalltown's New Billing System Goes Live

Hal Rucker — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 14:58:13 -0800

Today we launched the new version of our subscription-based billing system - an enterprise strength service for recording credit card transactions and manually entering check payments. In addition to tracking all billing activities, the product automatically sends out email alerts when there are customer service issues, such as expired credit cards, cancellations, and refunds.

Subscription-based billing is a tricky problem to solve because there are so many edge cases to handle. Our needs are extra complex because we support many different subscription configurations based on product offerings, activity periods, and revenue share with resellers.

The user interface can be easily branded for each of our partners. Below is a screen grab. Double click the image to see a larger view.

- Hal Rucker

San Mateo 2008 Halloween FunFest

Hal Rucker — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 13:47:26 -0700

The Smalltown gang had a great time again this year handing out It's It Ice Cream Sandwiches at the San Mateo Halloween FunFest. Here are some photos:

- Hal Rucker

Local Photo Contest

Hal Rucker — Tue, 30 Sep 2008 13:46:29 -0700

We had a photo contest in September and got a lot of nice entries. Congratulations to Carlo Acenas and the two honorable mentions.

Smalltown Photo Contest

- Hal Rucker

Smalltown Photo Contest

Hal Rucker — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 10:51:11 -0700

They say a picture is worth a thousand words... now a picture can win you an iPod Nano. This is your chance to show your own unique point of view about where you live and win an iPod Nano in the process. The subject can be anything interesting, beautiful, whacky, or insightful about your town. There are more details here http://www.smalltown.com/photocontest

- Hal Rucker

Webcard™ Listings on an iPhone

Hal Rucker — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 11:51:25 -0700

I just had to go out and get a new iPhone to show you this:

YouTube video showing a Webcard Listing on an iPhone.

Poor me ;-)

- Hal Rucker

Smalltown Webcard™ Reseller Program

Hal Rucker — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 22:19:54 -0700

Today we publicly announced our next phase of expansion: A reseller program that enables any website to publish and sell Webcard™ listings. Here is a description from our website:

The Webcard Listing Reseller Program is a simple way to add accurate merchant-generated multimedia content to your site, and at the same time enable a super easy additional revenue stream for your business. Here is how it works:

1. We help you create a button with your design motif that says "Get your enhanced business listing". When users click on that button, it opens a version of our Webcard™ listing creation wizard with your branding elements.

2. Every time one of your users creates a Webcard™ listing, we will do a significant monthly revenue share with you and send you a check. In about ten minutes, your users can create a Webcard™ listing that brings more traffic to your site.

3. If one of your users already owns a Webcard™ listing they created somewhere else, our API automatically adds their Webcard™ listing to your site. If this happens, you receive additional revenue for displaying this Webcard™ listing, even if it wasn't created on your site. You get compelling, frequently changing content on your site AND a genuinely simple new source of revenue. We host the Webcard™ listings and the Webcard™ creation wizard, add your branding, and take care of all the billing. There really isn't much for you to do on your end other than add Webcard™ listings to your site using our simple API.

Click here to see an example we created for a fictitious IYP site called BizPlaza.

And, finally, the press release about our announcement.

Smalltown® Announces Reseller Program for Distribution and Sale of Webcard™ Universal Business Listings

Smalltown Technology Enables Partners to Sell Webcard™ Enhanced Listings and Publish Merchant-Generated Multimedia Content

San Mateo, CA – August 12, 2008 – Smalltown, the company redefining online local advertising through technical innovations, publicly launched their Reseller Program today. The opportunity to easily display and sell Webcard™ universal business listings is now available to any Internet-based company. Participation includes significant revenue share for every Webcard listing created or displayed on the reseller's website or mobile application.

"Smalltown's program benefits our partners in two ways," said Hal Rucker, founder. "First, they get free dynamic content feeds about local businesses. Because Webcards are so easy to change, restaurant owners upload their daily specials every day, and realtors add their open houses every Friday afternoon -- our content is compelling for end-users and boosted by search engines. Second, we provide a new source of revenue that is easy to implement. We host the Webcard creation wizard, re-brand it, and even take care of the subscription-based billing if the partner prefers."

"This is a syndication model that benefits the whole ecosystem," said Nick Ordon, Smalltown CEO. "The small business owner (SMB) wins by being able to market themselves across the Internet with their Webcard listing. Our partners win with great content and a revenue share. And Smalltown wins by being the hub of distribution."

Easy to Create Once, Publish Anywhere, Change Often
In as few as ten minutes, merchants can create a customized, affordable Webcard listing with video, photo galleries, coupons, formatted text and usage reporting. Future functionality will include call tracking, appointment calendars and outbound audio messages.

Each Webcard listing, a hybrid of an enhanced yellow page listing and a portable mini website, has a unique Web address. They are indexed by Google, Yahoo! and other popular search engines. Once created, it only takes seconds to make modifications and promote new content such as daily specials, upcoming events, coupons and sales.

Additional information is available at www.webcards.com/reseller-program

About Smalltown
Smalltown is privately held and headquartered in San Mateo, California. The company operates six Smalltown® hyperlocal websites in the San Francisco Bay Area and is scaling nationally with Webcards.com and the Webcard™ listing Reseller Program. Visit www.webcards.com to make a Webcard™ listing. For more information visit Smalltown at www.smalltown.com. The Smalltown logo, the Webcards logo and other sample images are available at www.smalltown.com/logos.html.

- Hal Rucker

User Generated Reviews: We Asked, We Got Beat Up, We Responded

Hal Rucker — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 17:18:45 -0700

The topic of user-generated reviews has been covered in the mainstream media quite a bit. This video segment I saw yesterday on our local CBS news affiliate prompted me to retell a story from our pre-launch days.

In early 2006, our designers did extensive focus group testing with local merchants. We showed them prototypes of what we were planning to build as a way to get their input before we wrote any code. Our first prototype showed Webcard™ listings that included reviews written by people in the community. Specifically, the reviews were on the same "page" as the merchant's business information.

You would not believe how violently and unanimously the test subjects reacted to this layout. "What the h*** are you thinking?" they asked. "There is no f****** way we would buy an ad from you that might have a negative review right on it!"

We asked them how this was different than a newspaper ad that was printed in the same edition that had a negative review about the advertiser written by a food editor. Their answer was clear: "The difference is that a newspaper has ads and editorial, but the editorial doesn't appear on the ads." They all believed there needed to be a strong "separation of church and state" when it came to editorial and advertising.

That is why Smalltown reviews are located in their own tab. We have merchant generated listings and user generated reviews, but they are in their own sections of our site. When we mocked this up and tested it, none of the merchants objected to the reviews.

After we launched Smalltown, we still encountered the occasional unhappy customer who objected to negative reviews. That's when we added our ReplyBack™ feature that allows Webcard listing owners to respond to reviews written about them. Now we rarely get any complaints.

- Hal Rucker

"...34,000 local sales reps peddling online products..."

Hal Rucker — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 21:16:53 -0700

An associate forwarded me this research report teaser from Borrell Associates. Can it be true that there are "…more than 34,000 sales reps peddling online products – more than for any other medium…"?

- Hal Rucker
---

"Say Goodbye to Yellow Pages"

We are releasing a new report today that I thought might interest you. Over the next five years, we are expecting 39% of the ad spending on print yellow pages to vanish. After 12 years as an advertising medium, the Internet has finally reached small-business owners with viable marketing opportunities in the form of keyword advertising, interactive directories and low-priced online video commercials. The recession appears to be triggering the shift. Click here to download an executive summary or the full report.

A remarkable finding is that there are now more than 34,000 local sales reps peddling online products -- more than for any other medium. To date, and in the foreseeable future, directory companies have fared better than any other legacy media at this strategy, garnering about 14% of their total gross revenues from online sales.

Our report also details how online video commercials have emerged as the fastest-growing online ad format for small businesses. By 2012, we expect streaming video advertising to surpass all other formats, including banners and paid search. The report includes local online spending estimates for search advertising and streaming video for 210 markets.

Webcard™ Listing ROI

Hal Rucker — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 21:11:49 -0700

Smalltown has been in business long enough that we can now start to generate some meaningful statistics about the usage of Webcard listings.

Smalltown customers who are coming up for their annual renewal this month are receiving an average of 1,240 "views" per year. At first glance, that might not sound like an impressive number of views. But consider these factors and you'll understand why our customer renewal rate is so high:

Each view is uniquely valuable.

We define a "view" as the event when a user clicks on a Webcard to open it. That means the click isn't recorded until the user has decided to get more information after reviewing the basic information on the Webcard - an expression of true interest. There is much more customer engagement on an open Webcard than there is on a common html page view. In fact, the average time spent on an opened Webcard is about 2 full minutes. That's a long average for one to spend on a typical online business listing for barbers, plumbers and pizza parlors, where a large percentage of the users are just quickly looking up a phone number or address.

Our local search is more precise than the big guys.

Smalltown is truly local, so our audience is inherently smaller. Remember, though, that being local also means we are highly targeted and unpolluted by other ad models, like Google SEM or elaborate, expensive SEO strategies designed to push listings to the top of page one. The users who click on a Smalltown Webcard listing typically live in the neighborhood. If one is searching for "jewelry store" in San Mateo, Smalltown delivers information about jewelry stores in San Mateo; not Google optimized crazy SEO stuff like "San Mateo Jewelry Store, Find Jewelry Stores in Your Area, Search by Category/Name www.areaguides.net" (A real example.)

Smalltown Webcards have an awesome ROI.

An opened Webcard view costs the average Webcard owner a remarkably low $0.39! Anyone who has used AdWords, or advertised on other local sites like Yelp or Citysearch knows this is a tremendous online marketing value.

- Hal Rucker

Smalltown Welcomes Nick Ordon

Hal Rucker — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 21:50:52 -0700

Smalltown® Grows Management Team as Service Expands Nationally

Online Local Advertising Platform Provider Appoints Nick Ordon as President and CEO

San Mateo, CA – June 30, 2008 – Smalltown, the company redefining online local advertising through technical innovation, today expanded its management team with the appointment of Nick Ordon as President and CEO. Founder Hal Rucker will remain with the company as Chairman and Chief Strategy Officer, overseeing new product development. Robert Goldberg, a seasoned technology executive and venture capital investor, also joined Smalltown's board of directors.

As CEO, Ordon will capitalize on the momentum generated by last month's launch of Webcards.com, an advertising platform that enables small and medium sized businesses (SMBs) to effectively promote and manage their online presence across the Internet without having to produce multiple campaigns in different formats on a variety of platforms.

"I'm very excited to welcome Nick and Robert to our team," said Hal Rucker. "The addition of their collective experience in a variety of leadership roles comes at an ideal time for Smalltown, and their proven operational and business development skills will free me to focus on guiding our team's design of ground breaking new products that empower our customers."

Nick Ordon comes to Smalltown with more than twenty years of public and private company senior executive experience, most notably as CEO of Versant Corporation (NASDAQ: VSNT), the worldwide leader in specialized data management software, where he spent eight years. More recently, Ordon was CEO of venture-backed firms Infotone and Grayboxx. He held numerous executive positions with Hewlett Packard and Lotus Development earlier in his career.

Robert Goldberg joins Smalltown's board with experience both as an operating executive with NBCi and Looksmart, and as a Managing Director at Idealab. Goldberg was a board member and investor in several pioneering online and local companies, including Insider Pages, Snap and ClickShift.

"I was very much drawn to Smalltown's approach to local using Webcard listings, and the unique vision of the team that designed the platform," said Ordon. "I am a strong believer that Webcards.com is exactly the right solution at the right time for SMBs who want to create or strengthen their Web presence. Smalltown's technology will allow our partners to capitalize on the vibrant small business ecosystem that is emerging on the Internet."

"I've been involved with a number of companies trying to figure out how to effectively penetrate the massive opportunity in local. Smalltown has benefited from the lessons learned in these companies and has cracked the code on cost-effective customer acquisition and monetization," said Goldberg. "Hal and Nick are leading a very innovative and pragmatic team. I'm thrilled to be a part of it."

Designed to serve as a single entryway from which small businesses can efficiently manage all their online marketing, Smalltown's Webcard™ universal business listings allow the creation of an instant, portable Web presence that is indexed by the popular search engines. Webcard™ listings can contain text, photos, videos, coupons, maps and hyperlinks, and soon will deliver more features specifically designed for the SMB community. When merchants make changes to their Webcard™ listing, those changes are instantly reflected wherever the Webcard™ listing appears on the Internet.

About Smalltown
Co-founders Hal Rucker and Mark Jenkins had a vision for how they could make it easier to find the things people need in their own neighborhood using the Internet, at the same time simplifying online marketing for local merchants and service providers. They set off to build an online advertising platform with national reach for the "local" marketplace. Launched in 2005 and funded by Formative Ventures (www.formative.com), Smalltown is privately held and headquartered in San Mateo, California. The company operates six Smalltown hyperlocal Websites in the San Francisco Bay Area and is scaling nationally with www.webcards.com, building an integrated one-stop online advertising and marketing solution for small and medium sized businesses. Visit www.webcards.com to make a Webcard™ listing. For more information, visit Smalltown at www.smalltown.com.

BTW: Here are some new Webcards this week:

Christopher Scott Homes
http://www.smalltown.com/webcards/card/321466

The Buttery Bakery
http://www.smalltown.com/webcards/card/321431

Zrii - The Original Amalaki
http://www.smalltown.com/sancarlos/zrii

REV International Consultancy Group
http://www.smalltown.com/webcards/card/337148

The Collective Antiques of San Mateo
http://www.smalltown.com/sanmateo/collective

Innovate Group, LLC
http://www.smalltown.com/webcards/card/336950

24HourWebCash.com/geisen5219
http://www.smalltown.com/webcards/card/329893

Dover Dental
http://www.smalltown.com/webcards/card/321488

- Hal Rucker

Hiring: Senior Software Engineer

Hal Rucker — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 14:28:45 -0700

Smalltown is looking for a senior software engineer who has a passion for building innovative rich Internet applications. Send your resume to jobs@smalltown.com if you think you're a good match for the position, and please forward this opportunity to anyone you think would be interested.

Thanks!

Download smalltown_senior_engineer.pdf

---

Smalltown, Inc

210 S B Street | San Mateo, CA | 94401 | jobs@smalltown.com

SENIOR SOFTWARE ENGINEER

Are you an experienced software developer with an interest in cutting edge user interface design? Do you have experience developing a public Web application using Adobe Flash, ActionScript, CSS and HTML? Do you have deep experience with object-oriented design patterns and graphical user interface development? And do you enjoy working in a startup environment?

Smalltown, a VC-funded company located in downtown San Mateo, CA is looking for a senior developer to join us in building innovative Rich Internet Applications. This is an exciting opportunity to join an established early-stage startup, and to add your signature to the architecture and design of the Smalltown solution.

Applicants must thrive as a member of a small focused team, be passionate about the promise of next-generation Internet applications, and be comfortable working collaboratively with a user interface team that’s pushing the envelope of Web application design. If you’re interested in playing a lead role in the construction of a next-generation Internet application, please contact us with your resume.

REQUIREMENTS:

o Strong experience with object-oriented software design patterns, in any language
o Experience with client-side web development (CSS, HTML, JavaScript, AJAX)
o Experience with rich-client user interface development (Flash / ActionScript, Java Swing, Motif / X11, OpenLaszlo, Mac/Windows client apps, or similar)
o Experience with Flash 8 / ActionScript 2
o Experience building and operating public internet applications
o BS or MS in Computer Science

NICE TO HAVES:

o Expertise with object-oriented Flash using the MTASC open source compiler
o Experience building server-connected, data-driven Flash applications
o Experience with data transfer and synchronization issues between a Flash application and Java middleware
o Experience using Java middleware (Tomcat / Spring / Hibernate or Apple WebObjects)

ComBots RoboGames in San Francisco

Hal Rucker — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 18:03:20 -0700

OFF TOPIC: RoboGames is coming to San Francisco!

If you liked watching BattleBots on TV, you'll love watching the same level of robotic competition at RoboGames.

RoboGames!
The world's largest robot show!

Date:	Fri, June 13th, 12-7 Sat, June 14th, 12-10 Sun, June 15, 12-7
Where:	Fort Mason, San Francisco Map & directions
Cost:	$20, $10/kids 7-17

Smalltown: http://www.smalltown.com/sanmateo/card/320999

Here are links to a couple robots I've built in the past for this competition:

Crazy Susan: http://rucker.com/crazysusan/index.shtml

Buster Photos: http://homepage.mac.com/hrucker/buster/PhotoAlbum12.html

Buster Video: http://homepage.mac.com/hrucker/buster/iMovieTheater19.html

- Hal Rucker

Webcards.com Coverage

Hal Rucker — Thu, 22 May 2008 19:11:55 -0700

Coverage of our launch of Webcards.com

InternetNews.com http://snipurl.com/internetnews
http://www.internetnews.com/ec-news/article.php/3747011

Smart Biz: http://snipurl.com/smartbiz
http://www.smartbiz.com/article/view/2429/?utm_source=&utm_medium=newsfeed

Entreprenuer.com: http://snipurl.com/entrep
http://entrepreneur.com/blog.html?id=193934

Smallbiztechnology.com: http://snipurl.com/smallbiztech
http://smallbiztechnology.com/archive/2008/05/beyond-traditional-web-sites-o.html

The Deal.com: http://snipurl.com/dailydeal
http://www.thedeal.com/techconfidential/vc-ratings/vc-ratings/smalltown-extends-first-round.php

TechCrunch: http://snipurl.com/tcrunch
http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/05/13/smalltowns-webcards-no-longer-just-hyper-local/#comments

VentureBeat: http://snipurl.com/vbeat
http://venturebeat.com/2008/05/13/smalltown-expands-its-scope-to-the-internet-community-at-large-with-webcardscom/

Webcard video and testimonials: http://www.webcards.com/webcards-testimonials.html

Webcards SiteMap: http://www.webcards.com/webcards-sitemap.html

Webcard Directory: http://www.webcards.com/webcards-directory.html

Big Announcement for Smalltown

Hal Rucker — Tue, 13 May 2008 06:00:00 -0700

I'm very excited to write that today we unveiled the next phase of Smalltown's growth: the launch of Webcards.com.

Webcards.com is a site where anyone can go to make a Webcard™ listing, even if there isn't a Smalltown hyper local site in their town yet. Why would small business owners want to make a Webcard listing when there isn't a Smalltown site in their community? Two reasons:

1. Traditional websites simply are not the best online solution for small businesses. Webcard listings are a new type of Web presence tailored to their unique needs. They are easy to make, easy to change, affordable and include built-in functionality merchants don't have the time or resources to build themselves. And just like a traditional website, Webcard listings have unique urls and are indexed by the popular search engines.

2. Webcard listings are "portable". This means they can be embedded into other websites such as IYPs, ad networks, local verticals, social networking sites and so on. Best of all, if users change their Webcard listings in one place, that change is instantly made everywhere the Webcard listing is published.

Isn't this a departure from Smalltown's focus on local websites with deep local content?

Webcards.com has always been in our plans for kick-starting the expansion of Smalltown's into hundreds of other communities across the country. Remember that classic local chicken-and-egg problem… Which came first, the content or the visitors? We say "content comes first". We'll monitor Webcards.com to identify hot spots of Webcard listing activity, and use that data to inform us about where to launch the next Smalltown sites. For example, Webcards.com might identify a certain zip code that has at least two Webcard listings in every category, and then we'll launch a Smalltown hyper local website in that region, which is pre-loaded with rich local content.

Please visit www.webcards.com to learn more.

Here's the press release supporting today's announcement:

Smalltown® Launches Webcards.com to Simplify Online Advertising and Marketing for Small Businesses

Webcard™ Universal Business Listings Are Portable Websites That Are Easy to Publish Anywhere on the Internet

San Mateo, CA — May 13, 2008 — Smalltown, the company redefining online local advertising through technical innovations, today unveiled Webcards.com, where local merchants can go to create Webcard™ listings to promote their businesses across the Internet without having to produce multiple campaigns in different formats on a variety of platforms. Webcard listings, which are a hybrid of yellow page ads and multimedia websites, can work on their own or be embedded into other Web pages. When merchants make changes to their Webcard listing, the changes are instantly reflected everywhere on the Internet the Webcard listing appears.

"Merchants typically do not have the time, money or resources to build the features required to get value out of traditional websites," said Hal Rucker, founder and CEO of Smalltown. "So we created a totally new type of portable Web presence tailored to their unique needs. We’re building a critical piece of the online advertising ecosystem that will enable a small business owner to make a single Webcard listing and use it everywhere, whether it’s as a stand-alone website, a banner ad, a mobile ad, an interactive gadget ad, or a multimedia addition to a Facebook page or yellow pages directory. After working with hundreds of our customers in six pilot towns to optimize the features that work best for them, we’re excited to offer Webcard listings to small business owners everywhere."

"After more than a decade of the Internet it's surprising that developing an effective online presence is still such a challenge for small businesses," said Greg Sterling, principal, Sterling Market Intelligence and Program Director of Local Mobile Search. "The launch of Webcards.com, combined with their syndication to local sites and the broader Internet, offers an appealing solution to that problem."

Easy to Create Once, Publish Anywhere, Change Often

Webcards.com includes a step-by-step publishing tool called the Webcard™ Factory. In as few as ten minutes, merchants can create a customized, affordable Webcard listing with video, photo galleries, coupons, formatted text and reporting. Future functionality will include call tracking, appointment calendars and outbound audio messages.

Each Webcard listing has a unique Web address, and they are indexed by Google, Yahoo! and other popular search engines. Once created, it only takes seconds to make modifications and promote new content such as daily specials, upcoming events, coupons and sales.

"We had a website before we got our Webcard," said Wendy Narlock of The Spa Studio. "The great thing about our Webcard is that we can so easily change our coupon and try out different ideas for promotions. Plus, our Webcard has paid for its one-year subscription price within the first two months."

In connection with the Webcards.com launch, Smalltown is announcing integration with three companies that will showcase Webcard universal business listings: YellowPagesLive, Trulia and WebVisible. The company anticipates additional key partnership announcements in the months ahead.

"The whole point of search engine optimization (SEO), search engine marketing (SEM) and online advertising is to lead potential customers to a compelling destination so they will take actions with the business," said Carey Ransom, VP of Sales and Marketing at WebVisible. "About half of small businesses don’t have websites, and those that do have difficulty changing them. Smalltown’s Webcard listings are an innovation the market has needed for a long time because they are such a great source of current and local merchant generated content. Webcards are a compelling destination to drive online and search engine advertising campaigns."

See the rest of the press release at Webcards.com.

Here are a couple Webcards made at Webcards.com

Snappy Wellness: http://www.smalltown.com/webcards/snappywellness
Boss Glass Artists: http://www.smalltown.com/webcards/boss

- Hal Rucker

New Webcard™ Creation Wizard Launched Today

Hal Rucker — Thu, 08 May 2008 20:35:53 -0700

We launched our first town in Burlingame, California in October, 2006. Smalltown hyper local websites are currently in 5 additional pilot towns where we continue to test and improve our products and services by talking to our customers.

Based on that real world feedback, today we launched a refined version of the Webcard Wizard used to create Webcard™ listings. Our goal is to make it as easy as possible to create a compelling local Web presence, and we made two significant improvements:

Immediate Gratification: First time users simply enter some information about their business, upload one photo and write a one paragraph description. Then, when they get to the WYSIWYG editor, they see their basic Webcard listing "automagically" created. We found that this helps ease their uneasiness about how to get started, and boosts their confidence to add new features and rich content.

An Edit/Preview Toggle: We implemented a more intuitive way for users to switch between edit and preview mode, so it's even easier to see exactly how a Webcard listing will look and behave before it goes live.

Early reviews from users are positive; please let us know what you think.

- Hal Rucker

"Webcards Lite"

Hal Rucker — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 12:18:41 -0700

Many people have noticed a technical change we recently implemented: Webcard Listings discovered on the Web outside of a Smalltown local site now open in their own browser window. (Internally we called this project "Webcards Lite".)

We made this change for two reasons:

1. When users find a Webcard listing on Google, Yahoo! and the other popular search sites, we don't want them to have to go to a Smalltown local site just to view the Webcard and the information it contains.

2. We have a big announcement coming up in mid-May, and "Webcards Lite" was one of the first steps in building the infrastructure for the new launch.

Here are some examples of Webcard listings that show this new behavior:

- Hal Rucker