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Local
Search is the next "Big Thing" in search engine
technology according to the major players at the recent
Search Engine Strategies Conference in San Jose, CA. Both
end users and marketers stand to profit from this technology.
Yahoo!, Google, MSN and AskJeeves all intend to go after
the Yellow Pages market which is a mature and slowly declining
industry. Giant telecoms like SBC and Verizon have been
intelligent enough to bring the Yellow Pages online with
SmartPages.com and SuperPages.com, respectively.
Paul Levine,
General Manager of Yahoo! Local states that the Yellow Pages
market is a $14 billion a year industry which can also be
addressed by upcoming search technology. This is an interesting
comment since Yahoo!, also has business relationships with
both SBC and Bell South telecoms.
But the major
search engines and search directories plan to do the online
yellow page companies one better by integrating general
search, local search, yellow pages and mapping technology
into one-stop shopping for the end-user.
Who's
On First?
At this writing
neither MSN or AskJeeves have rolled out their local search
technology, even in beta form. Yahoo! and Google, however,
both have beta local search services on their websites.
Right now, the Yahoo! local search engine (http://local.yahoo.com/)
is more robust than the Google local search engine (http://local.google.com/).
When you do
a Google local search for "laguna beach optometrists"
for instance, you will find some sponsored listing at the
top, the top 10 listings and a link to a Mapquest map showing
those locations. Address, phone number and Mapquest driving
directions are shown. Also, there is a section for Related
Web Pages.
By contrast,
Yahoo! Local Search carries no sponsored links and has a
clean interface with address and phone numbers shown and
also an area to give the business a rating. The Yahoo! SmartView
map is much more powerful and user-friendly than the Google
/ Mapquest map. Zooming in is more precise and powerful
on Yahoo!'s local search mapping technology. With SmartView
you can also find local ATM's, hotels, parking, public transportation
and hospitals mapped out for you. With Yahoo! there is a
My Locations button where your most recent local searches
can be saved.
Some of the
same listings for this search appear in both Yahoo! and
Google and for this search anyway, Google seems to list
more optometry groups at the top of the listings while Yahoo!
lists more individual optometrists. Both offer distance
from your location to the listed businesses.
What's On
Second?
AskJeeves has
teamed up with CitySearch.com for a partnership with local
search and content provided by CitySearch.com. The CitySearch.com
site now looks to be both more robust and ad-laden than
either the Yahoo! or Google local search betas. If AskJeeves
adopts this same format then they will appeal mostly to
buyers and less to information seekers.
I Dunno
If local search
can also combine elements of personalized
search this will make the experience so much
more meaningful for the end-user. Suppose you do a local
search in Newport Beach, CA for restaurants and through
your personalized settings the search engine already knows
you prefer sushi and sunsets. The returned results will
be sushi restaurants on the beach in Newport. Now this is
getting pretty specific and less clicks to get to where
you want to be.
Both the end-user
and marketers will profit from this kind of search. And
this is just the kind of relationship the local search giants
are hoping to achieve.
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