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Local search is a vertical service in the larger field of online search that provides details on the presence of search targets within a localized, geographic area. Most commonly, local search helps consumers to find goods and services of interest to them in a user defined geographic location. The search results provide business listings classified either by distance from a user-chosen location, or ranked by other user selected preferences. The business listings include contact information, which is supplemented by navigation aids to help the user “locate” these businesses by mapping the address of the business, or by creating a route between the user’s location and the address of the business.
At the same time that local search is expanding, online social networking
is beginning to have an influence on local search’s form and function.
Recently, we have seen the rise of Hyper-local search that is focused on
the notion that online communities might become powerful surrogates for
“trusted circles of friends”, while recommending vendors, products, services,
or locations that might “best” resolve the search needs of a member of
a community. Next, we have seen the staid Internet YellowPage sites include
user ratings of the business listings shown on these sites. Also, a number
of companies are morphing “social networking” into, social mapping sites
focused on localities. In essence, these communities are focused socially
and spatially with micro-circles of friends within those spatial boundaries
of interest to members of the community.
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| In his late breaking research, Michael Dobson discovers that local search
is mutating to local-social search through the adoption of social networking
structures and the application of social search tools, user generated content
and the use of social tags may completely rewrite the functionality of
local search platforms, hyper local search sites have failed to build sustainable
audiences in local search, community based local search sites may not be
the future of the industry, Google’s universal search and its AdWords capabilities
may give Google a sustainable and unbeatable position in the search market.
Local search companies that have not embraced the concepts of social search
are ignoring a fundamental change in the local search business, and mobile-local
search will mutate into mobile-local-social search in what may be the long
awaited breakout move in the location based services industry. |
Michael@MobileIN.com
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