Darby Sieben -

It was one of those amazing days of incredible meetings, finalizing a new deal (wait for this one) and introductions to some incredible technologies and start-ups in the social media space. During one of those meetings, I was asked the question; “How Social is Yellow Pages Group?”.

This was one of those questions that I had to pause to give some thought. I answered by outlining some of the initiatives and realized we do a lot. So I figured this would make a good blog post.

Here are just some of the things that we are doing in the social space.

YellowPages.ca

Introduced this year, you can now login into YellowPages.ca using your Facebook Username and ID which will automatically set you up with a Yellow Pages Account. Login in the top right hand corner of the site. This initiative is lead by YPG’s social media guru, @martyboy008 and his incredible team of social media experts.

This sign-in allows you to rate and review businesses and share your discoveries with your social graph. For example, here is screenshot of a recent review that I wrote on the Red House Thai & Malaysia in Pickering (this is the place that started my love affair with Thai food and anybody that knows me, knows I love Pad Thai).

Finally when you connect using your Facebook Account, you can actually see what businesses your friends like.

YellowPages.ca Facebook Application

The first of its kind in Canada, released in 2008 – the complete YellowPages.ca experience within the Facebook environment complete with ratings and reviews.

This one even got press coverage by CTV in June 2008 – check out the video,

RedFlagDeals.com

Without a doubt, RedFlagDeals.com is Canada’s most active shopping network featuring one of the most active forums discussing all the best places in Canada to find deals.

For everybody looking for free stuff, one of their popular areas is Canadian Freebies & Free Stuff,

Coming Soon … the RedFlagDeals.com Daily Deal,

Urbanizer iPhone Application

Urbanizer is Canada’s first “mood-based” application for the iPhone (here is the link the iTunes Store) that works in Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal.

One the web you can see moods of current cities. Here is a screenshot of Calgary.

LesPac.com and BuySell.com Classified Sites

In the province of Quebec, LesPac.com has established itself as the leader in the classified space. In English speaking Canada there is BuySell.com, another top classified destination for Canadians.

Restaurantica.com

One of Canada’s most engaged communities, Restaurantica.com features over 200,000 reviews on restaurants.

New Additions to the Social Family of Yellow Pages Group

Urban Pill

One of the leading blog destinations for what is happening in Vancouver, UrbanPill.com is pretty cool to follow if you live or plan on visiting Vancouver.

GigPark

GigPark is a social recommendation engine that was built by @pema and @noahgodfrey (these guys kick-ass in the Canadian tech space) – who sold this platform to CanPages in 2009.

Quick Links to the Social Destinations for the Above

YellowPages.ca on Facebook
YellowPages.ca on Twitter (managed by @zelia, YPG’s super crazy social media communicator)
PagesJaunes.ca on Twitter
Yellow Pages Group Local Video Channel on YouTube
Yellow Pages Group Ad Campaigns on YouTube
Yellow Pages Group on LinkedIn
YellowPages Mobile on Twitter
Urbanizer on Twitter
RedFlagDeals.com on Twitter
RedFlagDeals.com on Facebook
Restaurantica.com on Facebook

Funny thing, on the phone this took all about 2-minutes, this blog post took a little bit longer. Perhaps I should have done just a video.

Tell me what you think – did you enjoy this post? Any feedback?

Popularity: 5% [?]

Yesterday I posted an article on the first look of the new YellowPages.ca iPad application, see the screenshots new YellowPages.ca iPad applicationhere or download the application from iTunes.

In less than 24-hours, we have moved to the #1 free application in Canada. Will be interesting to see how long we stay in that position.

I did a post last year on the reasons for the success of the YellowPages.ca iPhone application, when we hit 1/2 million downloads (we are now over 1M) and I think those reasons are still valid today – what do you think.

NOTE: here is the link to the press release on the 1M download mark – YellowPages.ca™ Mobile App for Smart Phone Hits Milestone With One Million Downloads Over 30,000 Downloads Each Week!

Popularity: 3% [?]

Quick update this morning (Tuesday, June 15, 2010) – less than 24-hours, the YellowPages.ca iPad application hits #2 top free iPad app in Canada,

Here is a first look at the new iPad application for YellowPages.ca by Yellow Pages Group.

As far as I can tell this is the first directory application in Canada and one of the first directory applications for the iPad by a major IYP.

What are do you think of the application?

Home Page of the Application (Vertical View)

Home Page of the Application (Horizontal View)

Search Results for Hotels NearMe – I was at the Yellow Pages offices in Calgary

Selected Country Inn and Suites – I can see from the listings, they have a video (content is king)

Looking at some Photos

I like this business, what about adding it to my favorites

Hotels in Near Me search (vertical view)

Looking at the results (vertical view)

Country Inn and Suites (vertical view – all the content in one easy view – very cool)

What you Favorite a Business you add a new icon to the home page

Reverse Lookup Screen

Popularity: 3% [?]