Yodle is a two-year-old company that enables small businesses to become part of local online ad market companies. The technology behind Yodle is ClickRank, which uses a bidding algorithm for online ads to get the name out for these small businesses.
The unique model that Yodle pushes is to direct visitors of the small business websites to actually call the businesses through the web. This sets up more of a rapport between the potential customer and business-owner.
“Yodle has put together a phenomenal management team, and, by filling a local void overlooked by Google and Yahoo – one estimated at $100 billion – has become one of the fastest growing players in local online advertising,” said Adbrite CEO Iggy Fanlo. Fanlo was also recently added as an appointed member of the Yodle Advisory Board.
Fanlo joins Dr. Michael Kearns, a Professor of Computer and Information Science and the University of Pennsylvania. Fanlo is also the former President of Shopping.com.
This model worked so well that the revenue increase for Yodle was 224%. To date, 87,609 calls were made. And in November 2006, Bessemer Venture Partners funded Yodle to help keep the model running.
In the About Us page, I also noticed some more interesting information. David Rosenblatt also joined the Board of Directors earlier this month. Rosenblatt is the CEO of DoubleClick, a company that Google agreed to acquire for $3.1 billion.
