US media giant CBS recently snapped up social music site Last.FM for a cool $280 million  arguably the largest Web 2.0 acquisition in the UK.

The London-based social networking site allows users to connect with other listeners with similar music tastes, to custom-build their own radio stations, and to watch music video-clips. This happens through streaming radio, which is based on the playlists of songs users have been listening to on their own computers, as well as what’s on the playlists of their peers.

Established 5 years ago, Last.FM maintains about 15 million monthly users in UK (4 million in the U.S.) and hangs its hat on music video distribution thought to be a good fit with the traditional broadcast giant. Last.FM also has video distribution in development, in line with the YouTube-like marriage of social networking and viral video distribution.

Many believe the acquisition is a strategic move for CBS to build off its radio, music, and television assets to carve out an online presence (similar to the way that News Corp. has done it with Fox Interactive Media and MySpace).

According to the Kelsey Group, this could bring CBS the foundation for a pay-per-action model around songs: The product comes with a recommendation engine that provides links to buy music, based on what users and their friends are listening to. This could have nice synergies with its existing music properties, and for music it doesn’t have licenses to play, it offers 30-second samples. Bottom line, it extends CBS’s reach, and brings many possibilities for new ad formats and distribution to new online audiences.

The media giant is also currently expanding its advertising portfolio, which includes online and terrestrial radio, broadcast and cable TV, and outdoor advertising. Instead of focusing solely on generating programs, CBS has begun to explore a variety of mediums for its broadcast audiences. Their acquisition of Last.FM is a clear sign they are moving towards this direction.

The Washington Post wants people to start looking local. The award-winning broadsheet recently launched Local Explorer, a new service on washingtonpost.com, which allows users to get the lowdown on where you live, or where you’re thinking about living.

Local Explorer is a map-based tool designed to explore an area’s communities in granular detail. Established through a partnership with OnBoard, it provides a visual overview the Washington area, plotting current, practical information about communities on Google Maps.

According to the blog Google Maps Mania, Local Explorer covers the Washington, D.C., area, and various Washington, Maryland and Virginia communities. Mashed up on the map are recent area home sales, crime incidents and schools. You can also map fire and police stations, restaurants, bars, hospitals, movie theaters and more. It also has facts and figures, local news, classifieds and upcoming events within a great user interface.

User simply have to key in a city name, street address, county name or Zip code, and such information will be at their fingertips. In addition, they will also receive tailored news reports from their specific community, as well as local classified ads in The Washington Post.

Also launched in tandem with Local Explorer is Local Life, which serves as a centralized location for users to browse useful content relevant to the D.C. area, including traffic alerts, local classifieds, a link to the City Guide and DC Scout (the site’s popular shopping and style guide).

“Washingtonpost.com and The Washington Post have a strong reputation for national and political reporting, but we are also the leader in all things local,” said Executive Editor Jim Brady in a press release. We take pride in being able to offer our readers extensive resources beyond traditional news stories and are committed to providing valuable tools to help our local readers navigate, understand and enjoy the metro area.”

Aside from offering this one-stop online resource to connect people with the communities they live in, washingtonpost.com also unveiled a wireless version of its City Guide for Web-enhanced phones, BlackBerrys and similar devices, allowing users to search for restaurant and bar reviews and movie showtimes.

Going back to Bill Gates well-publicized speech (which, as you know, contained some bold predictions on the death of traditional media), STLtoday.com recently carried a story on Denny Payne President and Chief Executive Officer of SBC Directory Operations, and Chairman of the Yellow Pages Association a man who strongly believes the Yellow Pages will continue to flourish in the forthcoming digital age.

In an interview with the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Payne who also run’s AT&T’s $3.7 billion Yellow Pages divisiontalked about the print directory’s simplicity and its place in our lives. He also revealed some hard facts: research reports showing that 61% of people still turn first to their print phone book when looking for a local company.

According to Payne, AT&T’s long-term plan is to leverage its Internet, wireless and video services to give users convenient access to Yellow Pages content. It’s a solid strategy, analysts say, considering that AT&T already owns the biggest wireless phone network in the U.S., and possesses a formidable broadband Internet presence.

Yet aside from their growing range of products and services, AT&T’s key strength still lies in its 5,000-strong sales force a group extremely adept at persuading people to advertise in its directories. It not only generates revenue, but also establishes relationships. “It’s the sales organizations that really have to evolve to be able to carry all these multiple platforms,” said Kelsey Group analyst Neal Polachek.

Print isn’t going away anytime soon, Payne stressed in the article. Despite the looming threat of a digital revolution, picking up a phone directory to find a number remains to be an easy, comfortable, and convenient solution for most people. Traditional media, after all, will always will have the upper hand over anything that needs an electric cord for it to be useful. “Business is good, and we expect it to be good,” Payne said. “It’s still the easiest method of search out there.”

TargetSpot, an exciting new ad serving technology and marketplace for advertisers and internet radio broadcasters, will allow advertisers to create buy and place their own advertising in online streaming audio outlets.

Advertisers can create customized audio, video, banner and text ads using an array of jingles, sound effects, and visuals provided by TargetSpot. Clients can also upload their current creative directly into their web account. Ads are then targeted to a specific demographic, location or property. Campaign costs vary with advertising revenue being shared among TargetSpot and the participating broadcaster.

“This is the first platform to allow all businesses, regardless of size, to easily and cost-efficiently utilize streaming media advertising,” said Doug Perlson, TargetSpot’s CEO. “TargetSpot democratizes what has traditionally been the domain of large advertisers with big creative budgets.”

Before it was launched last April, TargetSpot had been in development for over a year and originated from a need for an end-to-end ad serving solution for the streaming radio stations operated by CBS Radio.� Though it only currently handles Internet radio, terrestrial radio will most probably follow once the online model proves itself, and once the medium becomes a more important venue.

Given that CBS Radio is one of TargetSpots major investors, analysts predict that the transition to terrestrial might be made easier. In addition to its investment, CBS Radio will utilize the technology on its more than 100 music, talk, sports and news radio stations broadcasting live online.

“What we have created is a sophisticated advertising platform unlike any other technology being used by radio today,” said CBS Radio President and CEO Dan Mason. “Advertising in streaming media isn’t like putting up a banner ad on a web page, which is where the technology was when we conceived the idea for TargetSpot. The technology, among the purest forms of business to business advertising, is specifically designed for monetizing streaming audio and video, and allows internet broadcasters to expand their web offerings while staying in command of their inventory.”

Given that it already has a great deal of potential traction, it will be intriguing to see how TargetSpot catches on with advertisers.

The new beta version of Yellowpages.com boasts many functional changes and improvements that will definitely appeal to a wide cross-section of users. Though Yellowpages.com is already positioned well in the local search world thanks to its strong brand presence, sales channel assets, and mobile and video initiatives they recently revamped the site and added key features.

Their new design has been described as sharper, more intuitive, and includes slick new features (Click-to-Call) and the welcome integration of user ratings and reviews.

The improved interface of the new site will also serve to boost other IYP efforts, such as small business video advertising integration and their text-based local search tool for mobile devices.

Since last March, mobile phone users have been able to send a business name or category in a text message to YP411. They receive a message with the three top listings for the specific term that they searched for.

This mobile search feature will surely complement other mobile services they have rolled out recently, such as the send-to-mobile feature that lets business listings be texted to any mobile phone number a user specifies.

Combined with the recent sales expansion of company, these progressive changes and enhancements signify a clear push for Yellowpages.com to redefine itself and strengthen its position in the local search space.

As mentioned in a recent blog entry (A Sneak Peek into IPTV), Yellowpages.com is also interested in integrating video to the site, as well as launching bundled sales efforts for small businesses. According to the Kelsey Group, this would take the form of small video windows that would accompany individual listings and be sold as additional ad units or upsells to print and online listings.

The Kelsey Group is optimistic about this video feature: Given the company’s strong sales assets and the ability to bundle such a complimentary ad offering beginning to show demand and adoption among SMBs, it will be positioned well to have a big part in the online video trend.