Webwork - 3:23 pm on May 17, 2006 (gmt 0)

Phone directory giant Yellow Pages Group surprised the Canadian Internet industry by announcing it had spent $2.5 million for 389 "domain names" owned by Maxymych's Montreal-based firm, Emall.ca. The prize list includes maps.ca, autos.ca and attorneys.ca, all specific categories that Yellow Pages will use to expand the reach of its online directory business.

The article [thestar.com]

What's the advantage of this strategy?

Besides reducing risks/costs associated with a "yellow pages company" having to pay several search engines for traffic on a never ending PPC basis this acquistion presages the creation of industry specific and geo-targeted Vortals that will gain the IYP the advantage of 1) type-in traffic; 2) niche marketing traffic (sign ups for listings); 3) data aggregation (free listings of basics); 4) their own PPC within the Vortal; 5) instant, memorable brands; 6) Oh, the possibilities . .

The directory as Vortal and Vortal as directory lives! The YP dinosaurs stir to life! The YPs fight back against extinction by search engine! Brilliant.

As my past posts have indicated I've been dumbfounded by how slow the big YP players have been to build out a web based model for their future survival. This is one of the smartest moves I've seen since Barry Diller buying Hotels.com, etc.

Someone at the Yellow Pages Group just earned their bonus for the year.