-By Katy Bachman

Borrell Associates, a research firm specializing in local advertising, identified Yodle, Local.com and Yellowbook.com as the three fastest-growing local online advertising companies. The three companies, named Tuesday (Oct. 27), were considered from a list of 36 companies that had annual revenue of $25 million or more.

Growth for the three firms—all in local search marketing—are exceeding the industry average, up 12 percent to $14.2 billion this year, per Borrell’s recently released forecast. Yodle is on track to triple its 2009 revenue to about $75 million this year. Yellowbook.com is expected to double its revenue to about $390 million. Local.com is expected to grow its revenue by more than one-third to surpass $50 million.

“A lot of online advertising companies don’t make really all that much money,” said Gordon Borrell, president of Borrell Associates. “They sound like great ideas, but there’s no money behind it.”

Borrell’s top-three revenue performers have all agreed to participate in Borrell’s 2010 Local Online Advertising Conference, scheduled for February 8-9 in New York.