I just read an interesting post on Search Engine Land that got me thinking Its titled, Local Search, A Solved Consumer Problem. It takes an interesting perspective on local search, but Mr. Berk is right, from a consumer standpoint, local search is largely solved. But writing a blog post on that, is like writing a blog post announcing that email had taken over snail mail. Local search has been solved ever since the Yellow Pages first began to evolve 40 years ago.

If I want to find “Cantina Restaurant in Saratoga Springs” and I type in “Cantina Restaurant in Saratoga Springs” well, lets just say that Google isn’t in its infancy. When you search for the business you are looking for, you can be pretty damn sure that you will find the name address and phone number in Google (or Bing!) Thats not the issue, and there shouldn’t be a professional related to local search that finds this information enlightening. The issue in local search is finding information about local places, the businesses there, things happening, and what people are talking about. In other words, what are people talking about, what are they doing, and where are they doing it?

The golden triangle (coined from Fred Wilson) is in the answer to the who what where and why questions. If I already know where I want to go, the business I am seeking shouldn’t have to pay or jump through some elaborate hoop to get my business - they’ve already earned it. That problem doesn’t need to be solved. What is interesting to me, and what alot of people I know are working on, is how do I find out what is going on and where to go when I want to try something NEW, or find something I didn’t already know about. If I’m a local business and I’m having to spend time, money and effort reaching the people who already know about me and are looking for me, I’m in trouble. I want to reach the people who know about me but aren’t thinking about me, or the people who are thinking about what I offer but don’t know about me. In other words, I want to reach the consumers that AREN’T actively searching for me (obviously I still want to do business with those seeking me, but that should be inherently solved, and as Matthew pointed out generally has been solved).

There are a lot of potential solutions to this problem coming out. Foursquare,  Loopt, and others let me know where my friends are right now, maybe someplace I love, maybe someplace I’ve never been, but Gary’s there so I might want to check it out. UpNext, and Buzzd are all telling me what is happening near where I am based on my location - right now. Thrillist, FlavorPill, etc tell me where to go this weekend. There are lots of options out there, but there is no ubiquitous brand to seek out when looking for who, what and where locally. That problem is still yet to be solved.

Declaring a problem to be solved is often a silly thing, especially if it is not the incredible invention you just patented that solved said problem. Most of the time, the real innovations don’t solve a problem we even knew we had, they leap right over the prognosticators and create something nobody else even thought of. I didn’t know I had a search problem before I found Google, and that problem is solved (well Bing maybe doesn’t think so). There will always be better ways to organize information, and right now Google is the gatekeeper of information. Google created the solution to organize information, and make it easy to find when I am looking for something specifically. What hasn’t been solved yet, is a way to deliver me what I’m looking for before I even think about what exactly it is I’m looking for. The solution to that problem would be something worth writing about. What you don’t know might not be able to hurt you, but it could be really cool.

Maybe that Tarot Card lady outside my apartment is on to something

So I am going on an actual vacation for the first time in over a year. Which I am understandably excited about. However, its amazingly difficult to find information about what I want online. And since I would like to be able to know whats happening when I get there, the paper stuff I can pick up on arrival just doesn’t do the trick.

I am heading to Sanibel Island, and these are my options for websites:

• http://www.sanibelisland.com/
• http://www.sanibel-captiva.org/
• http://www.sanibelflorida.com/

Those are all completely useless, they were built in 2002 or 2003, they have no updated information and who knows when they were last updated. I looked to Yelp, http://www.yelp.com/c/sanibel-fl/restaurants - nothing particularly useful they only have 5 restaurants reviewed. But hidden in one of the comments was the mention of a blog: this one - http://www.sanibelcaptivadaily.com/category/restaurants/ and finally I found something. Not particularly good, because there is a lot of local jargon type stuff I don’t really care about as a visitor, but its nice to know that the local residents have a strong sense of civic pride.

My point here is that its awfully difficult to find good local information about remote or even not so remote places. Basically if its not a major city or a randomly enlightened small town there is no info about that town online. I’m not talking population and basic business listings with maps, but valuable content on where to go and what to do while I’m there.  Good local content is hard to find, and thats a problem I have with the internet. At least with searching on the internet. There is no resource for up to date information on small interesting localities. And even if there was, could you find it? (I am having more and more issues with Google just doing a bad job of indexing good information vs favoriting really old static pages, but thats another post)

Tripadvisor is great for reading about things to do and hotels (and “adventures”), Yelp is great for reviews on restaurants and shops - but all of those are resources for things that happened in the past. Even the reviews from last week won’t tell me whats happening next weekend. If I hear about an event on one site, I then have to head over to Yelp to find out if the place its being held is legit. The world needs a steady resource for local information, activities, restaurants, shops and things to do. And I want a calendar around those things and of course I want to know what other people’s experiences were like.

Fortunately I know of a resource like this, its just a matter of getting to all these great places in the world.

I find google maps local business search to be utterly useless. Time and again, I enter a local business term and I find nothing that is usefull to me. For example, this afternoon I wanted to cruise into Greenwich, CT and do some work in a nice locally owned coffee shop (ie NOT starbucks). A quick Google resulted in this:  http://bit.ly/19UmsA, the first 10 listings in google were totally useless to me, none of them even deserved a click. So I went with the Local Maps. Also useless; I had heard of a place I was trying to find and it wasn’t there.

Alas, I was forced to use Yelp. I like Yelp, its a great service but I never use it.  Here is the search results I got in yelp: http://bit.ly/Cyd5D. Great results, I found the business I was looking for and there were about a dozen additional businesses that were in Yelp’s data compared to Google’s. Here is another good example of why Marty Himmelstein doesn’t know what he is talking about when he says SEO doesn’t matter.  As good a job as Yelp has done with SEO, they should be showing up in this search term. Apparently Google didn’t think they content on Yelp directly related to my search was important enough. Great SEO would have placed the most relevant results in front of me on the top of the first page. Great SEO wouldn’t need me to type in a website directly becuase it would deliver them to me when I ask.

For all you local search businesses out there, keep going. Google isn’t doing local well and unless they decide to focus on it (please dont, please, please!) they aren’t going to. Matt Cutts, if you read this don’t get any ideas

The lesson from this is: SEO is absolutely priceless. And if you aren’t doing it, or you are harping against its value you will be riding a sinking ship into the horizon.

What are your experiences with Google Maps Local (as a consumer)?

There has been a lot of chatter about local business data recently in the local blogosphere. (Here and here ) I’m in the business of local business data and I agree it sucks. I spent this week at Search Marketing Expo attending sessions from some of the best in the business and the search engines themselves. And what I realized is that everyone is just trying to create a technology that will eliminate personal interaction and direct updates.

There is no one size fits all anwer to the local data question. How do local businesses represent themselves online. Well first you need to educate them on why they should be online. (here’s a good resource for education) If they know they need to be online chances are, they don’t know where to start. They don’t know where to start. Some have ideas, some have misgivings and some are misguided. One of the biggest problems I find is that there were people that came to them in 2003 and told them they were the next big thing. Small businesses paid up and never heard from these guys again. They are weary and rightfully so. Today there are about a hundred local search options out there, thousands if you incorporate all the offline media they could be buying.

The real query that hasn’t been indexed is how do you gain trust, build a really SOLID local business database and make money while doing this all. Not an easy question. Automation is nice, but you aren’t going to get a bar owner to self-service, not in 2009, maybe not in 2012 - maybe not for along time. The issue is time and ROI and trust. Small businesses don’t want to waste their money on advertising, but they know they need to advertise so they are willing to do that. What they really don’t want to waste is their time.

So if you are venturing into the local search space, you need to recognize one thing. These guys are busy and they are afraid to try new things. If there is one thing thats on our side though, its the fact that they can’t keep justifying increasing print rates with declining circulation and escalating printing costs. So they are going to have to try new things. Alot of companies charge for customer support, so why can’t you? Because you don’t have it.

No algorithm will ever replace handshakes and personal contacts. Walk your prospective clients through your product, educate them on why its valuable and you’ve got a client. Give them a self service portal that injects their business into a Live Nation infested noise fest, they’ll never take action.

Moral being, talk to your customers.  Be there for them. The web is strange enough for these old tymers don’t be a full voicemail box and an anonymous email. Be a person, don’t forget - they’re people too.

Today was a very exciting and exhausting day. Introducing some new people to the site, adding some great people to the team. Its amazing. Welcome to 2009.

I have an interesting perspective on what I’m doing. I learned my tricks from battling in the streets. When I first started I walked the streets with a blue  paper folder (the kind with the pockets), print outs from Word with a description of my new website.

“Thats, great kid. Let me know when someone else is on it.” - Ok

I learned that small businesses don’t really care about the internet. They dont care about SEO, they don’t care about fancy algorithms and pre-roll ads. They care about getting customers in their door and making them happy. I learned quickly that if you can make marketing easy for them they will listen. I learned that if you could show them new customers at a lower CPA than the local paper, they would not only listen - they would buy.

I have great idea’s everyday, I have a really great idea in my head right now and I know its 6-10 months away from happening.  In the past few weeks I got my girlfriend to start blogging, I think she finally understands how Twitter is cool and she even set up and iGoogle page this weekend. My parents have a computer in the kitchen (you have no idea about my parents - whats facebook?). People are using the internet to find things they need. - But of course they are Jamie! - Yes, but now they’ve realized they can find all kinds of crazy things they need on the internet easier than with their (insert non web-based tool). There are so many great things to do out there, the internet is going to explode when this economy recovers.

People aren’t leaving their neighborhoods like they used to. And if they are they are planning their trip from their desk, via the internet. They are searching for local businesses, for location specific activites and destination related things to do. This is what we mean by local. This is why Google introduced its OneBox (those bastards!) and its why everyone and their mother is started the latest and greatest local search site.

Well I didn’t figure out local was cool last quarter. I didn’t notice people were starting to ramp up local searches in June, not even of ‘07. I’m not telling you 2009 is going to be “the year of local” [trumpets sound]. But I am loving it. Loving the buzz, loving 2009 trend predictions from J.P. Morgan and Barclays. Loving the fact that a small company from Boston is dominating a huge billion dollar company with an almost identical name because its thinking small.

I’ll leave you with this, because you’re probably in the same game I am somehow or another. So cheers:

Internet activity continues to increase as the medium plays a more significant role in people’s lives, and this increased usage and dependence should leave Internet companies well-positioned when the macro environment improves.

- Barclays’ Doug Anmuth

Now everyone I know seems to have seen a Sonic commercial at least once in their life. But how many of those people have actually seen a Sonic Restaurant? Chances are you have seen a Sonic commercial and live no where near a Sonic. Now I’m not the media planner for Sonic and I don’t know who is, or why exactly they buy so much advertising in the Northeast, even though they don’t have any locations here, but I’m going to attempt to breakdown the Sonic Commercial and what its doing on my TV.

On hypothesis I have is that Sonic is using this as marketing hype. It gets people talking. “Man do I want to go to Sonic, just to try it!” I’ve heard this after seeing a Sonic ad, and it has a good point. Its positive spin, its an interesting angle. But is that really their plan?

It could be but I don’t believe so. I believe that Sonic is a victim of mass media, a lack of targeting and a 20th century mentality of media buying. 

This post is inspired by this post from Darren Herman, and from a question my mother asked me - “Are you going to have those dancing mortgage commercials on your websites now?” No Mom, websites with those commercials are dumb. And I didn’t mean dumb as in bad or in a colloquial manner, I meant they are not thinking about their audience and what people want to look at. 

In our most recent meeting with investors I used this line to focus a slide in my presentation:

Targeted Visitors are more Valuable to our Advertisers

This is a key focus of our business, the level of targeting we are able to provide to our advertisers. And its not just an ability to determine who is on a given page at a given time with some fancy algorithm, its just that the vast majority of our traffic comes through a search for the information on our page. Combined with very low bounce rates on our landing pages, our content keeps our visitors online and adds value to our advertisers. People come to our site searching for our advertisers - we just connect them.  Its not rocket science, but it seems to be missing elsewhere. 

Give people what they want, and they will respond positively to ads relating to what they want. Thats my motto online, and thats what we’ve been seeing happen.

* For more on the Sonic commercials see these links (don’t miss the comments)

http://adage.com/garfield/post?article_id=119271

http://aht.seriouseats.com/archives/2008/10/good-question-why-does-sonic-advertise-on-tv-when-theres-no-sonic-near-me.html

I’ve been extremely busy for the past 5 weeks. There has been so much going on in my life from polar ends of good and bad. Both of my parents were diagnosed with cancer this year, my Mother’s is very serious and out of left field. Just another thing to conquer in this game of life, which has become much more serious to me. Not to harp on the negative, but this economy isn’t exactly brightening my mood. At the same time, some of the best things have happened in the last 5 weeks. Our company is expanding quietly and well positioned to handle whatever new curveballs this economy is going to throw at us (im sure there will be some more between now and the end of the year).

I haven’t posted anything at all in some time, I feel rather guilty about that because it helps me get my thoughts out and I love to hear what other people are thinking about (especially in regard to my thoughts). My thoughts on the economy I feel are pretty clear, and its nice to see other people around the blogosphere agree and to see some people with like-minded thoughts on this ridiculous message being sent to many businesses. (I’m paraphrasing here) “If your business model isn’t good enough, there is always someone else to throw some money at the problem.” With the exception of Lehman, and hopefully the freaking auto industry, we need to stop bailing out companies - big and small.  And I think that attitude is over for now, at least for the time being.

Anyway, I’ll try to stop the politically motivated ranting in the future, and get back to my thoughts on local, sweet, sweet local. A place where everyone and there mother suddenly has to be. Well, keep throwing money at it and then tell everyone about how much money you threw at it.

One company I’m a huge fan of CitySquares, although my direct competition, they just got an investment from Marc Cuban (well 2 weeks ago). TechCrunch didn’t have a mention that I could find. That is sick. Mark Cuban invests in your company and no party, no flashy press release to every news org ever. Although I’m sure there was a veritable party going on at their office… Congrats to CitySquares and to the whole industry of Local Search. Cause that is a huge name in a very small space. Either the space has to get bigger or the  name has to get smaller. I’m putting my money on the space getting bigger.

Warren Buffet is the man.

I was doing some late night number crunching and data research and I came across some interesting points. A few I touched on earlier in the week, but I’ve had some more time to address some of these and I wanted to talk about them. There are huge numbers involved here, and some interesting theories that I haven’t quite finalized in my head. Maybe these thoughts will help clear that up.

Check out this post form Conde Nast in February talking about the Yellow Pages. It is fairly amusing considering how just about anyone you ask in the Northeast will admit that they don’t care much for print advertising. (We hear this all the time) Note the comment:

If Nielsen can’t get TV viewership right after all of these years, how on earth can the Yellow Pages Association know how many times anyone “references” the Yellow Pages?

Thats exactly the point, you can’t track how people use the yellow pages, you can’t see which people read your ad, or how many times people read it and took action, or no action. There is no data to support their continued use.(or even to figure out why people aren’t using them anymore)

However, people still need to find stuff; restaurants, clothes, hotels, doctors, lawyers, whatever… simply now people are turning to the web for a quicker, easier search experience. And search is dominating the web these days. Google is raking it in, Yahoo and Microsoft are scrambling to get a bigger piece, and startups like Cuil and Mahalo are trying to get break into the scene. But however they’re gonna find it, people are going to use search, more specifically local search.

Local search will soon be the king of search, as the economy tightens, people are traveling less and are generally more concerned with whats happening in their community. (and thus more willing to spend their x dollars locally) A particularly powerful quote from A new report by Borrell Associates (which I referenced in an earlier post):

“Local online advertising,” defined as search, “local banners,” and video (classifieds are also in there), would reach $12.6 billion in 2008, with “local search” contributing roughly $5 billion to that total.

Those are big numbers, and there are big players already in and entering the local search market. But there are a lot of nuances in local, people are different, politics matter and most often they have no idea who Marc Andreesen is, they don’t care who backed your startup, they dont care about the fancy rails technology your site runs on. They want results and they want to talk to a person.

There is no concrete answer to the question of who will succeed in local search, there are many verticals and plenty of niches to tackle, but there is certainly going to be a battle over it in 2009. And I didn’t even touch on mobile, which Google’s Eric Schmidt thinks will one day be more profitable than anything else they do. Thats a scary thought.

Will the general population move towards mobile search, are we still two or three years away? Or will local search dominate 2009? I know there are other much hotter topics, but seriously if you are reading this you probably aren’t Joe Cleveland. (Ok, easy)

Local is good, and it is a significant part of the entire advertising market. Some estimates say that up to 54% of all adverterising is local, or locally based. In our increasingly localized and connected world, the power of local search, local content, and locally based interaction are unquestionably becoming key components of the advertising arena. Agencies and Local SMB’s are both very increasingly using local based targeting, or local search as an element of their campaigns. According to a new eMarketer Report, In 2008 Internet Yellow Page advertising is expected to reach $1.2 Billion in ad spending. Measurable to say the least.

Local content is largely becoming focused on user generated content; topix.com, outside.in, and others are focusing on creating a platform for people to share their reactions and feelings on locally relevant issues. The number of review sites (the likes of Yelp, BooRah, etc) seem to be doubling by the minute. While it is no question that people are extremely interestedin sharing their content locally, again how are these companies going to monetize this revenue?

Today, I saved $800 on a minor bumper repair to my car because I was researching some competition, checked out Topix, and found a video ad for a bumper repair place promising to save me hundreds. Well they did, and I had a long conversation with the owner of the business. He has totally abondoned anything in print, he created the video himself, and is advertising locally online to spread the word. Only purchasing a few text ads pointing to his website, he has designed his own viral campaign. Here’s the video:

This is how local advertising is going to be monetized. Simply, I was looking for something local, I found it and completely unintentionally I found something that I needed. Video can become a power tool in one’s local arsenal, and is quickly becoming sought after. I am now endeared to topix (they do have a ton of comments from nearly any city you visit), and I literally saved over 800 bucks to fix my rediculously expensive bumper. Local at its finest.

So listen up advertisers, agencies, publishers: here is the lesson - keep it local, keep it relevant and make the relationship meaningful. While there is no question in my mind (and many others’) that print YP’s and newspapers are no longer a useful advertising outlet and that online local search is the place to be, if you can make the ad meaningful, important, relevant - you can make money. This is nothing new, it seems rather simple, but to truly monetize a local site you can’t rely on CPM’s from exchanges or Honda, Verizon and others (a recent Borrell report estimates the relative CPMs for IYP is $3.65 vs. $9.29 for print YP) . It’s gotta be local, because that way I (the user) can convert that page view into a handshake. And isn’t that what local is really all about?

I think so, and I can’t imagine why any business out there will over look the power of a handshake and a friendly smile.

I have tons of fake internet money. And I’m planning to get a bunch more, my question is what is everyone going to do with all their fake internet money. Alot of businesses out there are converting thier giant audiences into real money, but what are the large sites doing to monetize their views and return their investors money. Rounds C and D are exciting and there were alot big numbers thrown around last year and earlier this year, but when is that all going to come around. I’ve got a hunch that it isn’t.

Youtube became so succesful because it was free to its users, no money and no interuption cost of advertising. Facebook continues to be successful with its users because it limits the interuption cost as much as possible, but I would consider Facebook to be the field-leader in monetization. There are alot of competitors in an increasingly crowded space launching new platforms after their second and third rounds of funding all going after the same ad dollars (Zvents, outside.in, and many more). I’m not the only one who warns of seeking the same ad dollars with similar audiences.

I’m just curious who will be funding these companies in 6-8 months, will the economy pick up, or will ad networks save the day. There is some data showing a slowing online advertising atmosphere, however there is much more optimism towards online ad growth. I can’t see all of these local search competitors succeeding down the road, but the ones that do will own large shares of local markets and have a palpable relationship with these local markets. I cringe when I see “People Love Us on Yelp!” stickers - for a reason, they’re there and they are good.