After our post below, we were contacted by a BranchOut spokesperson who offered some clarification:

Facebook recruitment networking app BranchOut now has 300 million users and, according to a Wall Street Journal conversation with BranchOut CEO Rick Marini, reaches twice the number of users as competitor LinkedIN. The way Marini explained it: BranchOut trails LinkedIN in number of registered users, but it’s on Facebook and connects users with their Facebook friends and friends of friends, and that number exceeds LinkedIN numbers.  Only 10 million people have actually placed their profiles on BranchOut, however, with only 4 million actively returning to the site each month. Recruitment giant CareerBuilder has additionally teamed up with BranchOut, to offer social connectivity to its users.

Combine these statistics with the stats for LinkedIN candidate search – 87 % of recruiters surveyed by Jobvite used LinkedIN to find candidates in 2011 – and it’s clear that social media has taken a front and center place in the world of online recruitment.  Publishers who fail to integrate social media tools and features may end up eating the dust of sites such as Indeed, SimplyHired, Monster’s BeKnown, CareerBuilder, JobFox, JobVite, TweetMyJobs, TwitJob Search and its The SocialCV, and others who connect candidates with their social friends at hiring firms, and recruiters with candidates, through social networking.  For more on this growing social recruitment phenomenon read AIM Group’s Recruitment Advertising 2012: “Social 2.0″ (CIR 12.23, Dec. 15, 2011)

WSJ’s Digits blog has the latest BranchOut story.

Only Mortgage App to Offer Personalized Loan Quotes, Real-Time Rates and Mortgage Calculators in One Place

SEATTLE, Feb. 8, 2012 /PRNewswire/ — Zillow® (NASDAQ: Z), the leading real estate information marketplace, today announced the launch of the free Zillow Mortgage Marketplace Android™ App giving home shoppers on-the-go access to the innovative loan shopping experience of Zillow Mortgage Marketplace. Also available for the iPhone®, Zillow Mortgage Marketplace is the only mobile app with personalized loan quotes, lender ratings, real-time rates and mortgage calculators all in one place.

“Since we brought Zillow Mortgage Marketplace to mobile in June 2011, the Zillow Mortgage Marketplace app financial calculators have been used more than 1.5 million times, proving people want access to mortgage and financing information when they are out looking at homes,” said Erin Lantz, director of Zillow Mortgage Marketplace. “With the Android app, we were able to take advantage of the unique menu functionality that enables users to easily share information, such as mortgage rates and loan quotes, from every page.” 

The Zillow Mortgage Marketplace Android App gives home shoppers access to:

• A payment calculator that helps consumers estimate what their monthly payment will look like for a particular home.
• An affordability calculator that helps shoppers narrow their home search to homes within a specific price range, based on income, down payment and monthly debt information.
• A refinance calculator that allows consumers to compare their current loan and new loan quote to estimate potential savings if they refinance.
• A mortgage shopping experience that enables users to request and receive personalized loan quotes, read lender reviews and connect with a lender.
• Sharing functionality that allows shoppers to share current mortgage rates, calculator results and loans requests via email, Twitter® or text message.

The Zillow Mortgage Marketplace apps are available for download for free in the Android Marketplace and iTunes® App Store.

Zillow is the leader in mobile real estate with the most popular suite of mobile real estate apps, available on every major platform. In January 2012, more than 140 million homes were viewed on Zillow Mobile, which is more than 53 homes per second.

About Zillow, Inc.

Zillow is the leading real estate information marketplace, providing vital information about homes, real estate listings and mortgages through its websites and mobile applications, enabling homeowners, buyers, sellers and renters to connect with real estate and mortgage professionals best suited to meet their needs. More than 30 million unique users visited Zillow’s websites and mobile applications in January 2012. Zillow, Inc. operates Zillow.com, Zillow Mortgage Marketplace, Zillow Mobile, Postlets^® and Diverse Solutions^™. The company is headquartered in Seattle.

Zillow.com, Zillow and Postlets are registered trademarks of Zillow, Inc. Diverse Solutions is a trademark of Zillow, Inc.

Android is a trademark of Google Inc.

iPhone and iTunes are registered trademarks of Apple Inc.

Twitter is a registered trademark of Twitter, Inc.

SOURCE Zillow, Inc.

Amazon took top honors,  though second-place Ruby Lane was the seller favorite in the areas of customer service and communication. Merchants chose Bonanza as the easiest to use, though that was Craigslist’s best feature too, they reported. Overall, Craigslist didn’t fare all that well, coming in number 11 of 16.

Sellers shared their complaints. Concerns about Craigslist included spam and bad checks, and the need to repost every three days to make ads rank well. EBay, which garnered the greatest number of respondents, was criticized for the number of winning buyers who didn’t pay, and the elimination of the seller’s ability to post bad reviews about bad buyers. Amazon seller complaints included the marketplace’s willingness to accept any seller — even those with shoddy displays,  and the cut it takes on commission. Sellers had plenty of good things to say about each marketplace as well, of course.

The graph below summarizes the results. Here’s the link to what sellers said good and bad about each.

Kevin Doyle, SVP, GM Apartments.com presents check to Ed Shurna, exec director, Chicago Coalition for the Homeless.

An Apartments.com spokesperson just told us that in its hometown of Chicago, Ill. more than 100,000 people were homeless in 2011, and in the US 3.5 million are homeless. So, Apartments.com solicited nationwide participation and greater attention through its  “Raising Awareness. Taking Action: A Campaign to Help End Homelessness” Facebook initiative.

As part of the campaign, Apartments.com promised to donate $1 to the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless for every new “LIKE” it received on Facebook  from November 1, 2011 – December 31, 2011.  February 2 Apartments.com SVP and GM Kevin Doyle  presented a check for $15,000 to the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless. 

“The relationship touched everyone involved especially the Coalition as they rely on donations and grants to serve the Chicago area,” the spokesperson told us by email.

Here’s the announcement: 

APARTMENTS.COM DONATES $15,000

TO CHICAGO COALITION FOR THE HOMELESS

Facebook Campaign Generates Awareness and Funds for Local Charity

CHICAGO—(February 2, 2012) — Apartments.com presented a check for $15,000 to the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless yesterday at the culmination of their “Raising Awareness. Taking Action: A Campaign to Help End Homelessness” Facebook initiative.  As part of the campaign, Apartments.com promised to donate $1 to the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless for every new “LIKE” it received on Facebook from November 1, 2011 – December 31, 2011.

“In every aspect, this campaign was a huge success. We received overwhelming positive feedback from our Apartments.com staff and customers, as well as the general public,” said Kevin Doyle, senior vice president and general manager of Apartments.com.  “We know $15,000, by itself, won’t bring an end to homelessness, but we hope it helps the Coalition to be able to continue the monumental good they do each and every day.  It was an honor for our organization to be able to do our small part on behalf of the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless this past holiday season.”

The Chicago-based advocacy group was selected as the beneficiary of this inaugural campaign as the leading voice for the homeless in the city of Chicago, where Apartments.com is headquartered. It was estimated that last year more than 100,000 people suffered from homelessness in Chicago¹ and an estimated 3.5 million people each year experience homelessness². Apartments.com designed the initiative to generate nationwide participation and help bring greater attention to this widespread issue across America.

“Chicago Coalition for the Homeless was founded over 30 years ago on one simple premise: that in a just society, housing is a human right.  To that end, we work with families, youths and adults, advocating to better lives through access to shelter, housing, jobs and schools,” said Ed Shurna, executive director of the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless. “The staff of Apartments.com clearly knows the importance of housing and we are grateful to have their generous support.”

The Apartments.com campaign, “Raising Awareness. Taking Action: A Campaign to Help End Homelessness” aims to heighten visibility and bring in funds to benefit organizations that advocate for and serve the homeless. ”Like” the Apartments.com Facebook page for updates on next year’s “Raising Awareness. Taking Action: A Campaign to Help End Homelessness” initiative.

About Chicago Coalition for the Homeless

Chicago Coalition for the Homeless is a non-profit organization that works with people hurt by homelessness. Guided by its belief that housing is a human right in a just society, the coalition seeks to prevent and end homelessness by addressing its root causes. Its community organizers offer monthly outreach at more than 20 emergency shelters and transitional housing facilities across Chicago—reaching out to mothers with children, unaccompanied youths, children and teens struggling to access public schools, ex-offenders and low-wage workers. For more information or to donate to the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless, visit their website. 

About Apartments.com
Apartments.com  is a leading national apartment Internet listing subscription service with more than 50,000 unique addresses representing millions of rental units from managed properties, newspaper classifieds and for-rent-by-owner properties. By incorporating the most relevant products to reach renters including personalized searches and highly visual ads featuring live chat, real-time rent, online video walk-through demonstrations, professional photography, a mobile website and iPhone and Android app, Apartments.com creates easy access to its listings. Providing unmatched exposure to its advertisers through an intuitive name, strategic search engine placements, featured partnerships including Yahoo! Real Estate, Univision and more than 120 newspaper websites and innovative emerging media, Apartments.com reaches millions of renters nationwide, driving both qualified traffic and highly-engaged renters to leasing offices nationwide. Apartments.com is a division of Chicago-based Classified Ventures, LLC. The Apartments.com network of apartment rental websites includes Apartment Home Living , a leading social media apartment website distinguished by a “live for fun” community experience, proprietary lifestyle matching and local living guides to help renters find their perfect place to live.

The new paper, called Stuttgarter Wochenende, will appear on Saturdays. Zeitungsgruppe Stuttgart also publishes the daily papers Stuttgarter Nachrichten and Stuttgarter Zeitung and the weekly classifieds paper Stuttgarter Wochenblatt, which appears on Wednesdays.

Read the full announcement (in German) here.

Italy’s web industry is worth 2 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) and employs 700,000 people. The field of classified ads is saturated and local web companies, other than the “daddy’s boys” mentioned above, must rely on their own means to get ahead.

Few Italians are willing to invest and few foreign venture capital and investment funds operate in Italy. The country is perceived as isolated and nobody wants to invest as long as it is uncertain whether the state is able to service its debt. Despite these stumbling blocks, there are good business ideas and success stories in Italy, such as Bakeca.it (a generalist website), Jobrapido.com (a recruiting vertical search engine), Immobiliare.it (real estate) and Adboom.it, a web company operating in the classified ads business with a unique model.

The entrepreneurs interviewed were unanimous in saying that the crisis stimulates the intellect, that in order to succeed you must focus on technology and innovative ideas, study international success stories to replicate elements suitable to the Italian market in your own business model, carry out massive marketing operations and invest in advertising.

Among the generalist ad sites Bakeca.it, founded in 2005 by Paul Geymonat, a pioneer in the Italian web industry who died prematurely at age 45, is competing with Subito.it, owned by Schibsted Media Group, and Ebay Annunci (read the story here).

The turnover of Bakeca.it, according to its Ceo Alessandro Rivetti, came to €2.5 million ($3.25 million U.S.) in 2011 and the target for 2012 is to grow revenue aggressively to €3.5 million. Bakeca.it has acquired more than 1,000 customers since 2010 and invests about 25 percent of its revenue on advertising.

Jobrapido.com was at first very similar to other vertical search engines born in the U.S., such as Indeed.com and SimplyHired.com. Founded by Vito Lomele in mid-2006, the company hosted its server in a small kitchen.

Today the portal has more than 2.5 million unique visitors and 90 percent of the traffic comes from abroad. Jobrapido.com’s turnover amounts to €25 million ($32.5 million U.S.) with EBITDA of €5 million. The company employs 70 people (source: Corriere.it, November 2011) and operates in 50 countries.

CEO Vito Lomele couldn’t contribute to this story, because of prior engagements, but according to the Jobrapido.com case story presented at IAB, key to the portal’s success in 2011 were: offering a useful service for those looking for a job, the easy-to-use interface, a powerful SEO and SEM platform and strong link-building.

In Vito Lomele’s view it is not important to copy what others do. In fact, what really counts is implementing just the right features that users need, especially for companies with limited resources, and doing your job on a day-to-day basis, with a strong focus on technology, always keeping in mind your goals, because it is innovation that makes for a competitive company and service (source: Lomele speech at Venture Camp di Mind the Bridge, Milan November 2011).

Immobiliare.it, owned by Gruppo Immobiliare, and flagship of the most visited network of real estate websites in Italy, closed 2011 with a turnover of €12 million ($15.6 million U.S.)  and reinvests every cent. The group spent over 50 percent of the turnover in marketing in 2011. Of this 50 percent, in turn 90 percent went into marketing the online business.

AdBoom.it, owned by Live Shape Classified Media, was the first European portal to offer a multi-posting classified ads service and the first to offer an automatic video ads service in Italy on YouTube (read the story here). Marco Gherardi and Serghej Petrov are the  co-founders. The platform is a web-based service designed to help buyers and sellers of any kind of goods multiply their opportunities and successfully conclude transactions. The innovative AdBoom-approach to selling is based on multi-posting of ads.

The Italian classified ads market hasn’t changed significantly in the last year.

Silvio Pagliani,  co-founder of Immobiliare.it  and a member of its Board, believes the debt crisis in Europe and particularly in Italy has accelerated the transition from paper to web for the classified ads business. This was also witnessed two years ago in Spain.

The turnovers of the offline companies relying on paper have dropped dramatically. Many have closed down, or are taking losses because, unlike the past years, real estate agencies have become more determined to test the opportunities offered by the web. And they saw that, for the same amount of money the web is more profitable than paper – regardless of the channel. In addition, Pagliani pointed out the fact that many new vertical sites are springing up.

“In countries where internet is already established, real estate websites are so big that launching new ones is almost impossible.  And since the market is saturated, with well-positioned leaders, niches are opening up in real estate. For instance, websites that deal only with peculiar renting situations or specific types of property.

Those willing to enter the classified ads business are creating their own small spaces, Pagliani said.

Adboom’s CEO Marco Gherardi points to some “interesting trends”, such as growth in the value of advertising, fired by growth in the number of companies that are finally starting to take advantage of the web as a communication channel and also supported by the boom of  “mobile devices” accessing the web, such as smartphones and tablets –  a factor that will certainly continue to impact the future evolution of the industry.

No doubt, social networks and (especially) mobile will be the focus in 2012.

On social networks: in the past Facebook (and other social websites) developed their own businesses. But, with the latest apps, they are opening up to ensure others enter into a symbiosis with them, for a true exchange. In future Facebook will generate links and connections with other websites to make the symbiotic bond even stronger.

“I hear a lot of people saying they are focusing on Facebook and Twitter and they have gained ‘x’ fans or followers. Fact is, they do not know what to do with these fans or followers. There is no easy answer.

“Since two years, users have been able to register and login on Immobiliare.it through Facebook connect. We’ve noted that these users are more active than the “standard” users. Integration with social network has just begun, we are just scraping the surface,” said Pagliani.

Bakeca.it  manages Facebook in two ways: with a Facebook page accessible from Bakeca, and within the reply to the ad, where you can choose to share the ad on Facebook.

Alessandro Rivetti agrees with Silvio Pagliani about the future interaction of Facebook with other sites, but adds that Bakeca.it is not so focused on social networks. Since other forms of communication (eg. Google Adwords, or partnerships with publishers) are more interesting to Bakeca’s business model.

On the other hand, Adboom activated channels on the main social networks and offers these links to advertisers as new, profitable advertising channels, which raise the visibility of their ads.

On the mobile side of the business,  Live Shape’s first direct approach is still being developed. Within a couple of months it will launch two applications (for Android and iOS) for the two vertical ads sites Trovocamper.it and Trovobarche.it.

Pagliani said in the first development phase Web 2.0 was emphasized by Google. In the second Facebook was accentuated. The next step is mobile – and it will change the way we perceive the digital age. According to Pagliani mobile will open what he called “the Web 3.0 era”.

“We strongly believe mobile will have a huge impact and can be a great communication means, but it implies more technological complexity, meaning when you create a site, you have to optimize it for all the browsers and their variants. In addition, you have to make the mobile version, and the apps for Android, iPhone, and all the other platforms, like Blackberry. Players will compete on two key elements: technology and features, and brand awareness,” said Pagliani.

Bakeca.it is developing its website, bringing together in the new Bakeca Italia the features and search engine, instead of keeping the different city pages separate. The company released an iPhone app and is working on its mobile site.

“We always try to offer better services and content from front-end to back-end, with features that are faster and save time and costs. Development is very important to us, we are aiming at the best product. With no multi-national in the background, we do our best with the resources we have,” said Rivetti.

In the Italian classified ads business there are no new business models emerging. According to Gherardi the greatest success in the past year – both locally and internationally –  was the establishment of group buying, daily discounts and coupon sites, such as Letsbonus and Groupon.

In Italy the winning business model is usually the freemium and all the managers interviewed agreed that money is earned by selling the extra visibility.

“It is easier for real estate websites to charge for the ads. We have added free ads for consumers recently (they used to require a fee) and the reason is not that we can’t make people pay for our ads. That is not a problem. But, we must follow the market trends and what the other companies do. The ads market is mostly free in Southern Europe while in Northern Europe it’s not. In Ireland, for instance, the industry leader, recently acquired by Schibsted, charges for every ad and the same situation can be observed in Sweden and Norway.

“Where people recognize the value of the online channel, you can operate on a subscription model. Where there is low online awareness, you must offer free ads to encourage consumers to use the internet. You can make users pay for the ads, but this comes at a price. It depends how important revenue is for your company. If you charge for the ads, you have less ads,” said Pagliani.

“Bakeca.it tried to replicate Craiglist’s experience and charge for the ads once a critical mass was reached, (read the story here) but the experiment didn’t succeed, because, unlike Craiglist, our competitor offering his services for free. So we moved to the freemium model,” said Alessandro Rivetti.

Advertising spending is more and more targeted to online business. Now even small companies can afford to take advantage of TV and radio advertising, thanks to falling prices.

In this context, prospects for those trying to build a classified ads business aren’t promising. Marco Gherardi says that it is impossible to enter this industry if you are not supported by significant budgets. The situation is different for those companies with enough cash to enter the classified ads market and can launch “sizable” projects.

Alessandro Rivetti says, “in Italy classified ads are a closed market. To enter successfully, you need to invest at least €20 million, if you start from scratch. “A smarter idea is to develop a new web project, something that Italy doesn’t already have. Inspired by something that has had success overseas, and replicated in Italy, or Europe”.

In general, people start up web companies, because the internet offers good opportunities at low developing costs. Then they lack the skills to move ahead, Pagliani added. “Many underestimate the importance of marketing. In 2011 launching a start-up was much different from before. In 1998 an engineer was pretty much all you needed, but then there was no competition. Nowadays, a web company requires the same structure and know-how of a brick-and-mortar business”.

A few weeks ago Berlin-based 9Flats.com came up with the good idea of pulling an investor in who can reduce its advertising costs (here). German Media Pool Venture Capital (www.germanmediapool.com), a company which provides media advertising space in exchange for shares, agreed to provide media space in exchange of an undisclosed number of shares in 9Flats.

Today Airbnb.de, the German portal of U.S-based Airbnb.com, announced it had also found an investor who can be helpful with advertising. And not just anyone: Germany’s Axel Springer Verlag.

Axel Springer acquired a small (undisclosed) stake in Airbnb for an undisclosed cash amount plus media space. For the latter, the two parties entered into “a strategic marketing partnership”, Airbnb said in a media statement. (Full statement in German.)

Airbnb was launched in the U.S. in 2008 and operates internationally, but Axel Springer will only help it with advertising space in Germany. The advertising space will be giving in “its many online and print publications”, Airbnb said.

Another tit-for-tat: Axel Springer agreed to give Airbnb.de an “exclusive partnership” in the accommodation rental section of Axel Springer’s real estate portal Immonet.de. (A few weeks ago 9Flats and ImmobilienScout24.de concluded a “strategic cooperation agreement”. Then 9Flats managing director Stephan Uhrenbacher told Financial Times Deutschland (FTD) ImmobilienScout24 would, among others, help 9Flats win new inventory, ie. listings.)

9Flats was launched in Germany last year and is slowly internationalizing. At this stage, Airbnb is the more international player, with a presence in 19,000 cities and 192 countries (Airbnb statistics).

Apart from Axel Springer, the following venture capital firms are invested in Airbnb: Andreessen Horowitz, DST Global, General Catalyst, Greylock Partners, Sequoia Capital and SV Angels.

Gunnar Froh, Airbnb country manager for Germany, said his firm was happy to have gained Axel Springer as an investor and „close partner in future “ in Germany.

Venture capital firm T-Venture invested a multi-million euro amount in 9Flats.com recently. ImmobilienScout24.de is Germany’s biggest real estate platform and Immonet.de the second biggest. Both T-Venture and ImmobilienScout24 belong to German telecommunication giant Deutsche Telekom.

  IAC, which operates more than 50 Internet businesses across 30 countries, just reported impressive quarterly growth in areas that include search, Match.com and ServiceMagic. 

NEW YORK— February 1, 2012—IAC (Nasdaq: IACI) released fourth quarter 2011 results today.

• Q4 revenue and Operating Income Before Amortization reached record levels, with strong double-digit growth for the 8th consecutive quarter. Operating Income Before Amortization grew 88% to $90.9 million, which included the write-off of $23.0 million in deferred revenue related to the Meetic acquisition.

• Free Cash Flow for the twelve months ended December 31, 2011 was $332.4 million, up 32% over the prior year, while cash flow from operating activities attributable to continuing operations was $372.4 million, up 9% over the prior year.

• IAC repurchased 4.6 million shares of common stock between October 29, 2011 and January 27, 2012 at an average price of $41.70 per share, or $191.2 million in aggregate.

• IAC declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.12 per share to be paid on March 1, 2012 to stockholders of record as of the close of business on February 15, 2012.

• Q4 Adjusted Net Income and Adjusted EPS more than doubled from the year ago period.

• Q4 net income and GAAP EPS comparisons were impacted by certain discrete items as further described herein. Collectively, the net impact of these items benefited Q4 2010 net income and GAAP EPS by $77.4 million and $0.80 per share, respectively, but had no impact on Adjusted Net Income and Adjusted EPS.

Here is the complete release.

The latest cuts are effective as of this Friday.

The company is emphasising digital growth and investing in new self-service technology to provide more efficient service for customers.

Read more at AdNews.

Naspers said the two competing platforms were consolidated into one, to “grow Naspers’ online classifieds footprint and market penetration in South Africa”. Ebay’s Gumtree and the local platform Junkmail offer stiff competition in the relatively underdeveloped online market.

One-year old KalahariAds operated in the South African market only, while OLX operates in 96 countries in 40 languages. It is the market leader in a number of countries, including Portugal. Naspers owns 84 percent of OLX.

The KalahariAds team, based in Cape Town, now works for OLX. It is headed by Paul Casarin, previously general manager of KalahariAds.

“OLX is one of the world’s leading classified platforms. The consolidation gives us the expertise of a global classifieds business, which is OLX, and the hands-on local knowledge of the KalahariAds team. The team will ensure prompt customer support and high moderation standards, to make OLX a safe place for buyers and sellers,” said Casarin.

“As one of the largest classified companies in emerging markets, OLX brings a wealth of expertise, gained from operations in many countries, and adapted to local environments,” he said.

OLX.co.za will be able to focus even more on growing its mobile audience, with its full-house of mobile options, including a mobile site and apps for all operating systems (iOS, Android, Nokia, Blackberry).

The big (unanswered) question is, how long before Naspers eliminates inter-group competition between its free classified platforms in other countries (eg. in Greece its platforms OLX, Tradus and Slando all compete with each other in a very crowded market, which includes Schibsted’s Aggeliopolis.)

While it is being billed as an Australian first, Mumbrella argue that the product is similar to AOL’s Project Devil, launched last year in the US. It aims to present better results for advertisers and an improved experience for web users. The key element is user friendly interactivity and enhanced branding.

The offering officially launches in February.

<iframe width=”420″ height=”315″ src=”http://www.youtube.com/embed/01nU3sCSGws?rel=0″ frameborder=”0″ allowfullscreen></iframe>

Watch a demo at YouTube.

Juha Ruotsalainen, managing director of Aamulehti Publishing and Matti Ilmivalta, managing director of Northern Media – the two units that were merged – resigned earlier this month. The new entity is headed by Kari Juutilainen, the company said.

Juutilainen explained the next step of the restructuring: “Our goal is to increase efficiency and improve the quality perception of readers and advertisers. To that end we will carefully merge the back-office functions supporting all of Alma Regional Media´s 34 newspapers and rid it of overlaps.”

For the full media statement (in English) go here.

“We are in talks with a big company in East Europe. Furthermore, we have a long watchlist of small and medium-sized  businesses we would like to acquire,” Unger said.

Ringier finalized the acquisition of a 70-percent stake in the Slovenian internet group Azet last year. “That deal almost doubled our digital business in East Europe,” he said. Classified platforms in the Azet group include auto portals Automoto.sk and Autobazaar.sk and small ads platform Bazar.sk.

Last year Ringier also bought Swiss discount portal DeinDeal.

To a question about Ringier’s ambitions to enter the TV market, Unger replied: “We want to enter the market for television. But, first the asking prices have to change of the candidates we are investigating. We are looking in and outside Switzerland. We are in talks with two, or three players.”

Unger motivated the Ringier practice of usually buying no more than 50 percent in companies. “On the one hand we do that, because we want to be a good partner and on the other hand, because we want to profit from the know-how of the other party. For example, in ticketing there are professionals who can run the business far better than we can do it. That’s why a 50:50 joint venture often makes sense,” he said.

For the full interview, including a video (all in German), look here.

After a rash of Craigslist-related robberies, Milwaukee police officer Lisa Saffold yesterday said that people who want to buy or sell on Craigslist can meet at police department district stations.

“If they don’t want to meet you at a safe place, if they don’t want to meet you at a police district, that should be a red flag, an indicator: Don’t do business with that individual,” Saffold told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

“Do not give out personal information to an individual,” she told WISN television.

Six robberies related to Craigslist have been reported in one Milwaukee police district alone during the past month. The most recent was a stick-up for two mobile phones; others were for IPads.

“This is nothing new. It’s happening all over the country,” Safford said. “The media has deemed it ‘robbery by appointment’ because you’re posting ads, you’re selling your IPhones, your IPads, your vehicles, and when you go to a meeting  location, you’re being robbed.”

*    *   *    *

Will it be a problem much longer? We strongly disagree with him, but a professor of management at the University of Alabama, has offered an “educated guess” that someone will come up with a smartphone app that displaces Craigslist this year.

The idea was included in a list of 14 faculty members’ predictions for 2012.

Craig E. Armstrong, assistant professor of management at Alabama, said someone will offer an “app” that performs “Craigslist” functions for the exchange of goods and services. (Aren’t there a dozen, or six dozen, of those already?)

“Need to find someone to paint your house? Check the app. Want to earn some extra money by applying a skill you have? Check the app. The app platform will displace Craigslist because it will enable transactions with less traction and allow buyers and sellers to create reputations, Armstrong says,” the university said in the release.

One of the other projections: Social media will have a major impact on politics. (This requires a college degree?)

“Social media will continue to serve as an echo chamber for candidate gaffes, as we’ve already seen …” said Kristen Heflin, an assistant professor of advertising and public relations.  “Social media will be mined for information on public opinion. Social media buzz will serve as the new opinion polls. News organizations will base their stories off of social media buzz.”

The university’s office of media relations notes: “While these ‘educated guesses’ don’t always come true, our track record over the years has been good.”

We’d say 50-50 on those two. Craigslist may have plateaued, but it isn’t going away any time soon. As for the social-buzz “educated guess,” it’s hardly a guess when it’s already happened!

Zillow has just launched a mashup with Facebook, which lets consumers get advice from their social media friends as they search for a home to buy or rent. We tried it. Not only did we find two friends in the very zip code in which we wanted to make a purchase, we also found out that we have Facebook friends in 44 US states and 207 cities.  It’s very easy to use and could be immensely useful for those who are making a move to an area about which they know little. While in theory there’s much out there about neighborhoods and cities – schools, shops, cost of living and so forth – how do you find out the truth about the safety of the neighborhood, or whether the residents there keep their barking dogs in at night, or keep their yards looking nice? Your friends who live there will tell you, of course. We like this new Zillow feature.

Here’s the announcement, and a graphic of our search in a specific Phoenix zip code: 

Zillow Launches Social Home-Shopping Experience, Neighborhood Advice

Home Shoppers Can Now Connect With Facebook Friends to Find Neighborhood Information While Searching for Homes on Zillow

SEATTLE, Jan. 19, 2012 /PRNewswire/ – Today leading real estate information marketplace Zillow® (NASDAQ:Z) announced the launch of Neighborhood Advice on Zillow.com®, a social home-shopping experience that helps buyers and renters learn about neighborhoods from their Facebook friends.

While shopping on Zillow, users are prompted to activate Facebook® Connect and then see locally where their Facebook friends live or “check-in” the most.  As shoppers search for homes in a specific city or neighborhood, Neighborhood Advice will recommend Facebook friends connected to the area to contact for personal tips and advice.

For example, if a user is searching for homes in the San Francisco neighborhood of Noe Valley, Neighborhood Advice will identify friends who have shared that they live in Noe Valley, or who frequently “check-in” to places in Noe Valley. The home shopper can then send these friends a private direct message on Facebook to ask questions about the neighborhood.

“When people are looking to rent or buy a new home, they always ask friends, family and co-workers questions about different neighborhoods. Neighborhood Advice takes this further and deeper by allowing shoppers to quickly and easily tap into their broader online social network as they shop for homes on Zillow,” said Spencer Rascoff, CEO of Zillow. “Integrating social media tools and friend networks into the core Zillow home-shopping experience is yet another way we are giving our users access to previously hard-to-find, yet sought-after, information.”

About Zillow, Inc.

Zillow is the leading real estate information marketplace, providing vital information about homes, real estate listings and mortgages through its websites and mobile applications, enabling homeowners, buyers, sellers and renters to connect with real estate and mortgage professionals best suited to meet their needs. More than 23 million unique users visited Zillow’s websites and mobile applications in December 2011. Zillow, Inc. operates Zillow.com, Zillow Mortgage Marketplace, Zillow Mobile, Postlets® and Diverse Solutions™. The company is headquartered in Seattle.

Zillow.com, Zillow and Postlets are registered trademarks of Zillow, Inc. Diverse Solutions is a trademark of Zillow, Inc.

Facebook is a registered trademark of Facebook, Inc.

SOURCE Zillow, Inc.

Mobile.de is judged by many to be Germany’s biggest auto platform, with AutoScout24.de in close pursuit. It is an EBay company.

In an interview with the magazine Automobilwoche Mobile.de managing director Malte Krüger said a much smaller number of the 36,000 auto dealers registered with the portal defected to competitors than had been anticipated (article in German).

At the time, many dealers protested the hefty price hike and accused Mobile.de of “misusing its strong position in the market”. In fact, the German market is dominated by the two biggest players – Mobile.de and AutoScout24.de.

“We expected to lose up to 7 percent of the 36,000 dealers with the hike. In the end the defection rate was much lower,” Krüger told the magazine.

Back then Krüger justified the hike with the argument that Mobile.de’s reach stretched continuously over the past years, to the benefit of dealers, but listing prices were left unchanged.

Despite the muted fall-out, Mobile.de felt it was time to “give something back to the dealers” and today announced the launch of a big media campaign on Jan. 15 to increase the platform’s reach still further.

„We increased our marketing budget by 60 percent for this campaign,” said Krüger.

The campaign will be anchored by TV spots produced in the Moroccan desert, and supported by online ads, and longer versions of the TV spot on Facebook and YouTube.

“We expect the campaign to grow our traffic and increase enquiries at our dealers,” Krüger said.