Search agency TMP Directional Marketing today published its 2nd annual Local Search Usage Study, conducted by comScore, which takes a look at local search behaviors. There’s some pretty interesting data in it:

According to the study, the first sources used are Search Engines (31%), Print Yellow Pages or White Pages (30%), Internet Yellow Pages Sites (19%) and Local Search Sites (11%). This represents a change from last year’s study, which ranked Print Yellow Pages first (33%), followed by Search Engines (30%).

Charles Laughlin and Greg Sterling have some additional analysis.

The makers of Californian site Facebook have decided to cut the clutter on its pages, and will instead return to the spick and span look that brought it such popularity.

The amount of applications now available for each user to use on their profile has grown rapidly, causing annoyance for many.

The designers have been currying opinion on a possible redesign through the company’s developer blog and wiki, and have also enabled a group within the site to gain user feedback.

Google's new social networking tool Friend Connect just got dumped by Facebook.

Friend Connect enables web site owners to plug a social network into their site without knowing any code. It also connects to Google Talk, hi5, orkut, Plaxo, and more.

Know Facebook, originally one the sites your onsite network would connect with, has pulled out, saying:

We’ve found that it [Google Friend Connect] redistributes user information from Facebook to other developers without users’ knowledge, which doesn’t respect the privacy standards our users have come to expect and is a violation of our Terms of Service

We’ve reached out to Google several times about this issue, and hope to work with them to enable users to share their data exactly when and where they choose.

Strong words from a company that once announced your purchases to the world...