I love New York City. More than any other city on the planet, New York is exciting, expansive and always
interesting. As Earth's unofficial capital city, New York is home to many of the world's largest entities, some
even bigger than Donald Trump's ego. No other city has captured the world's imagination or harnessed its wealth
to the degree of NYC. New York is also the home of over 8-million people. As one of the most multicultural cities,
every cultural group in the world is represented within its 301 square mile area. New Yorkers aren't just
city-folk, they define what is hip in urban living in the early part of this century. Unlike their counterparts in
cities like LA, Rome or Tokyo, New Yorkers don't fall for fads, set trends, or get giddy over the next new thing,
ever. They are one of the most jaded and cynical populations and in their East Coast way, take great pride in their
worldliness. That's what makes them the perfect test market for Yahoo's local-search engine.
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During the month of November, NYC Transit users will get a first hand glimpse of a clever marketing tactic from
Yahoo. Yahoo plans to install bus stop kiosks featuring Yahoo Local-Search in order to test user's responses in
one of the densest urban environments in the US. The first kiosk will be installed at W. 42nd ST and Eighth Avenue.
A search for a cybercafe on 8th Avenue in NYC produced a lengthy list of all cybercafes in the five boroughs
including the first reference, a short two blocks from the epicenter of my search, W.42nd and 8th. Yahoo's local
search also includes the Yahoo map feature, allowing the searcher to plan easy routes between destinations. Most
search analysts feel the local-search market will become a cornerstone for both Yahoo and Google to build on as
they move towards producing personalized search results for their users. Many also feel Yahoo has a slight lead
on Google in the local search arena, though both firms are far ahead of their rivals in terms of usage, coverage
and precision.
"It's definitely a growth opportunity," said Greg Sterling, an analyst for the
Kelsey Group. "There's clear consumer demand that Google, Yahoo and others are responding to." With the paid
search sector expected to grow into an $8 Billion per year industry, Sterling predicts local-search will comprise
about 1/5th of the market by 2008. Today, about 25% of all search activity is users looking for a specific business
or service in their local area. Both Yahoo and Google are vying for dominance in the local-search market, but they
face stiff competition from traditional advertising mediums such as the telephone directories, as well as from
smaller search engines such as Ask.Com, A9 and others. As it stands today however, Yahoo and Google are far and
away the market leaders in local-search. From this point, the only way for a smaller company to effectively enter
the market is to present searchers with stronger and better branded technologies. An example would be
the integration of an application like Keyhole into local-search.
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Yahoo Local
Yahoo's local search is featured prominently on their standard front page with an easily found tab-link just
above the keyword text-box. The local search page asks users to type the product, service or business they are
looking for in one text-box and then type geographic information such as a street name or zip code into a second
text-box. Search results are displayed in groupings of 10, based primarily on the distance from the approximate
center of the geographic information entered. To the top right of the results is a feature reading "View Results
on a Map" that generates a standard Yahoo map with all of the businesses listed in the search displayed in their
street locations. Another feature lets the searcher specify the size of the search radius through a drop-down
menu measuring in 1, 3, 5, 10, 25, and 50 miles from the center of the search area.
Listings are added to Yahoo's local search by clicking on the link marked, "Add/Edit a Business". This
link opens a fairly straight forward form asking for basic information about a business, including the nature
of the submitter's relationship to the business. Right now, it appears that submission to the local search database
is free so businesses should take a few minutes to get a listing there, especially as it is likely Yahoo will
eventually charge for inclusion. Filling in the form takes less than five minutes and can only be beneficial
for business.
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Google Local
Google's version of local search is quite similar to Yahoo's but feels much less cluttered. While it is still
considered a Beta-test version of a local-search tool, it works quite well. One of the winning features of this
local search engine is the inclusion of a map beside the displayed results, unlike the map at Yahoo which
opens on a different page. Google's local results do not offer as much information as Yahoo's but they do include
exact street addresses, and a feature that allows users to get directions from their present location. While it
sometimes takes a bit of fiddling with address coordinates and zip codes, the feature produces precise directions
in text and map form. Google-local also displays results in lists of 10, though they use the letters A-J on each
page of results. Placement is determined by distance from the center of the geographic search area.
Businesses wanting to be listed in Google-local are asked to submit their information via email but before they do,
they should check to see if they are already in the index. Google-local gets its listings from a number of sources
including local Yellow Pages and telephone directories. An interesting feature of the culture at Google is their
willingness to help businesses update any out-of-date information carried in print directories they get listings
from. For example, if your business moved locations after the most recent telephone directory was published, the
information in that directory would be incorrect, as would your listing at Google-local. Google invites businesses
to email them any contact information changes (local-listings@google.com) and they will not only update your listing
at Google-local, they will also pass the new information to the source that provided them contact info from your
area.
In the coming years, search engines are going to present searches with a more personalized and generally a more
localized search experience. What we see at Yahoo and Google today is likely going to change and improve over the
next few months. With both companies looking to expand their revenue sources, local-search is going to be an
important issue for search engine marketers and businesses relying on customers referred by search engines.
About The Author
Jim Hedger is a writer, speaker and search engine marketing expert based in Victoria BC. Jim works with a limited
group of clients and provides consultancy services to StepForth Search Engine Placement. He has worked as an SEO
for over 5 years and welcomes the opportunity to share his experience through interviews, articles and speaking
engagements. Hedger can be reached at jim.hedger@gmail.com.
