Yellow Book is latest to launch video ads on web

Coming soon to a computer near you -- Joe the Plumber, or Bill the
Carpenter, or any type merchant at all who wants to show off his or
her business to a public increasingly hungry for video.

Yellow Book USA of Uniondale, one of the country's largest yellow
pages and online local search companies, said Tuesday it has become
the latest in its industry to launch a live advertiser video trial, on
its yellowbook.com site.

Pat Marshall, Yellow Book's chief new media officer, said the tests
began on its site a few weeks ago and that the service is highly
likely to become a regular part of the company's product offerings.

"We have been interested in video for some time," said Marshall, who
added Yellow Pages was "not influenced" by other companies already
testing out such service. "As bandwidth has increased, it has made
video a much more attractive opportunity for local merchants to use."

At Yellow Pages or at Dallas-based Idearc Media Corp.'s superpages.com
test site, which was launched in July, merchants sign up for the
service and work with a videographer who films and edits the ad.

Jannie Luong, an Idearc spokeswoman, said that the company -- which
was spunoff a year ago from Verizon Communications -- is testing the
service in Seattle, Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay area, with
other cities are expected to be added later. Luong declined to say how
many advertisers have signed up with Idearc.

Citysearch, a unit of IAC/Interactive, a collection of businesses
assembled by billionaire Barry Diller, also offers video advertising
services.

Marshall said Yellow Book will determine the charge for its service
after it completes the test phase. He declined to say how many
advertisers have signed on to the project. A Yellow Brook press
release said that the trial test includes "advertisers from across the
country" who represent "a cross-spectrum of small and medium-sized
businesses that advertise on yellowbook.com."

Marshall and Luong said that the filmed spots add value to an advertiser.

"Video has the power to convey a great deal of information in a very
short period of time," said Marshall. "Think of it as a picture being
worth 1,000 words." A restaurant may want to show film of its decor,
or its menu. A carpenter or plumber, he said, may want to exhibit his
or her work.

Luong said, "You get to see what the personalities (of the
advertisers) are like. It's not just a commercial per se."

Greg Sterling of Sterling Market Intelligence in San Francisco, said
he expects to see such services grow in the future. "Video adds more
text and color" to ads, Sterling said. "This is just a microcosm of
the video craze. The economics of producing video has come way down."
Sterling said he expected lawyers and other professionals to make
particular use of such services.