YellowPages.com, the online joint venture between BellSouth and SBC Communications, has chosen Omnicom's GSD&M of Austin, Texas, as its first agency of record, ClickZ reports. GSD&M is charged with helping the new company stand out in the highly contested local search market by building brand awareness, generating online traffic and positioning YellowPages.com as a premier site for local information. The first YellowPages.com campaign is expected to debut in early 2006.

A recent Kelsey Group report forecast local search advertising to grow at an average of 24 percent each year through 2009, and the online share of total Yellow Pages advertising to double in the next four years, writes DM News, reporting on a search milestone for RealPages.com, which is operated by YellowPages.com.

More than 20 million searches were made in July on RealPages.com, with BellSouth reporting an 18 percent year-over-year increase in searches for local advertisers. Later this fall, YellowPages.com, SBC's SmartPages.com and RealPages.com will shed their individual identities and operate under one name at www.yellowpages.com.

The site's most prominent competitors include Google and Yahoo, which have stepped up their local search efforts.

Telecom giants like Verizon and BellSouth have also revved up their online Yellow Pages efforts as local search takes off and pay-for-call gains popularity with advertisers. Verizon's SuperPages.com site launched its pay-for-call ad service earlier this month.