Local Search … How About Neighborhood Search?
The goal of local search is getting more defined as providers of pay per click and search realize that local means “in my neighborhood”. Currently Google or Yahoo can provide PPC ads for specific larger cities or states, but new technnology seems to be emerging that would allow PPC advertisers to specify zip codes and even neighborhoods they want to market to. Imagine waking up on a Sunday morning, typing in “fresh donuts” and getting the results of two bakeries, just 4 blocks away that have yummy donuts at a special price for you. It may just happen.
BusinessWeek.com put out an article on December 26th on Skyhook and how their technology can provide this scenario if the right partnerships fall into place (read article). Skyhook Wireless out of Boston has developed software that employs a computers Wi-fi to pinpoint the users location and then, with the cooperation of the big search engines, relevant ads can be delivered based on their location. This can be another major step in small business internet marketing and one useful tool for consumers.
Reports cite that Skyhook has mapped 100 of largest cities in the U.S. to date with more to come. Skyhook also stated that rollout of the service in some form is scheduled for 6 to 12 months down the line. It will likely take time after a full roll out to reach a community the size of Buffalo, but when it does, it will be great for getting a steal on a dozen donuts.
December 30th, 2006 at 1:13 am
You pose an interesting situation, but this is still dependent on people using Google, Yahoo, et all for local search.
While people are continuing to push more and more local-oriented queries (even though personally I think the definition is too broad), the majority of searches on the search engines are keyword ‘information’ based. If users use a site like CitySearch and are happy with the results, there is a good chance they will simply go back to CS for a local search, completely skipping Google et all. This becomes even more pronounced considered CitySearch *is* in the search results - while it may lead to people continuing to use the search engine, it may also lead some large leakage of local queries to the resulting site.
December 30th, 2006 at 10:44 am
Ahmed- Very true and there are many angles of detail into this situation to explore. I do think that if the major engines can offer this local penetration of quality results and offering, then they hold an advantage due to their large base of users … and those users are more apt to develop into local search users. That said, small local sites have a lot to offer and also can win users over and keep them no matter what the big dogs do. That gets into my earlier post of The LOCAL Bowl. Thanks for your thoughts and I’m interested to look into your site and offering!