Who wins when search goes from national to local?
"Well, so far I can't type in the 'Thai restaurants... ' query and get anything relevant on any of the major search engines. Having typed that into Yahoo's search, I end up with a Sushi bar listing and a Thai restaurant 95 miles south of San Francisco.
Indeed, unless there is some simple standard for local searching, merchants might shy away from nationwide-search engines for fear they're paying for someone that's not really a potential customer" .......
" Local search, and who wins? (Surprisingly, local search is not a topic on the agenda at the SES conference.)
Local merchants are increasingly being eyed as fresh meat for the search companies. Of all the searches conducted, about 10 to 20 percent are local in nature, according to Paul Levine, Yahoo's general manager for the online media company's Get Local properties.
Local advertising accounts for two-thirds of the overall advertising business, says Jim Lanzone, vice president of product management at Ask Jeeves.
"The auction-bidding process, which generates the price-per-click, is not as competitive in the local business, said Susan Wojcicki, director of product management at Google. "The more advertisers, the potentially higher the market price. There are a limited number of players in local," she said. That means prices-per-click should be less or "bargains" for local merchants, said Wojcicki.
On the other hand, a local platform catering to a local audience should be more valuable to a local advertiser and worth paying up for. Indeed, people spent more time on Craigslist.org, which provides local information, than any other online directory or local guide, according to NetRatings."
posted by Jen @ 7:31 AM
<< Home