SES Chicago - December 7-11, 2009

March 22, 2007

IAC's Horan Shares Local Strategies

Peter Horan, CEO of IAC/InterActiveCorp Media and Advertising, shared elements of IAC's local content strategy in his keynote address Wednesday at the Kelsey Group's Drilling Down on Local '07 event in Santa Clara, Calif. Horan, the former CEO of AllBusiness,com and About.com, joined IAC last month to oversee its media properties, which include Ask.com, Citysearch, and the newly acquired Insider Pages.

Horan spoke of eschewing a top-down approach, opting for one that allows IAC to "come at it like an average consumer and try to get things done," according to Matthew Nelson at ClickZ. He also blames a reliance on branded search for slowing down local search progress, when users are more satisfied with a broad-based approach pulling content from many sources, as IAC has done with Ask City, he said.

Horan also said that the key to local success involved combining content created by an editorial team with user-generated content, according to Donna Bogatin at ZDNet. Editors can focus on subject matter relevant to a broad audience, while users can supply the narrow-focused subject matter. He said that local content should be driven by "usefulness" to help local searchers complete their mission to "Search, find, obtain."

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 9:13 AM | Permalink

January 22, 2007

Citysearch Bolstering Local Ad Sales Teams

Citysearch is pulling out the big guns to compete in the local search ad arena. The IAC-owned company just opened a new sales office in Atlanta, and expects to have 180 people in the new location by June, in inside, outside and national sales, according to a ClickZ News story.

"[Citysearch's] goal is to double revenues," said The Kelsey Group's Matt Booth. "They're literally putting a stake in the ground and saying we're going to make a run at the local advertising space…. It's a pretty big bet."

Citysearch sales VP Travis Fore says the company is banking on finding success in the sweet spot between IYP and search. He expects Citysearch salespeople to better serve smaller businesses that don't react well to Internet ad jargon. Similar local ad sales moves by Citysearch in other major cities are also expected this year.

Posted by Kevin Newcomb at 2:01 AM | Permalink

November 29, 2006

IAC To Launch AskCity; Local Info Services Site

Reuters reports that IAC and Ask.com are launching a new local information services site named AskCity on December 4th. The site will combine IAC's portfolio of Ask.com, CitySearch, Evite and TicketMaster by providing information and services such as Web search, city guides, maps and event listings.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 8:24 AM | Permalink

October 17, 2006

Citysearch Adds SMS-Based Local Search For Mobile Phones

Citysearch formally launched its text-based mobile local search service today: CS411 (27411). There's also a send-to-phone feature (see, e.g., "Hotels, Burbank CA").

Doing the same search online vs. CS411 on a mobile phone yields somewhat different results. Users get four results in SMS, which were not identical to the online search results I got for the above search in my quick test. They were, in fact, more geographically accurate. (I received results only for Burbank vs. adjacent areas.) Citysearch consumer ratings are also provided, which you would expect and are central to the consumer value proposition.

Results I received were also "sponsored." Rather than a relevant advertiser link at the top of results, there was an advertiser-sponsor referenced at the bottom. The advertiser had nothing to do with my particular search for hotels but I would expect over time that will change.

In speaking with Citysearch EVP Scott Morrow a couple of weeks ago he stated that mobile was being seen as an important channel and future traffic source for the company and that Citysearch would be rolling out other mobile offerings in the not-too-distant future.

One of the interesting aspects of my discussion with Morrow was about "lead quality" and the differences between a click and a call and a map view, and so on. Citysearch is experimenting with different pricing strategies to better reflect this concept of lead quality, in terms of what the local advertiser actually receives.

Ask.com recently launched a mobile application, the local search component of which ("business listings") is built on Citysearch content and allows users to sort by rating, which is a very nice feature. Both companies are owned by IAC.

Here's a related post on my blog about the current state of mobile local search and related issues.

Posted by Greg Sterling at 9:54 AM | Permalink

August 31, 2006

Tips On Getting Listed In Local Search Results

Patricia Hursh wrote a ClickZ column named Four Steps Every Business Can Take to Improve Local Search Results. The article goes over the what, why and how on Local Search. In short, how does one get included in the local results you see search engines providing? She recommends that you (1) update your business listings at Amacai, infoUSA, and Acxiom, (2) submit your site to local engines such as Google Local, MSN Local, Yahoo Local, Ask Local, and TrueLocal, (3) update your Internet Yellow Page listings at YellowPages.com, Verizon SuperPages, and SwitchBoard.com, and (4) make sure to have your address clearly listed throughout your web site.

Don't have time to do all of that, you can pay one of these two companies to do it for you; Relevant Ads or RegisterLocal. Also, if you are interested in understanding who local search engine powers who, see Bruce Clay's and TrueLocal's PDF chart.

Postscript Barry: Although Amacai is related to another sister company, Localeze, it does not actually manage local search content. Localeze, a completely separate company (Amacai is its subsidiary), manages local search content for local merchants.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 9:04 AM | Permalink

April 7, 2006

SDForum To Host GeoSearch & Mapping Session With Google, Yahoo, MSN, & Ask.com

Search SIG announces that Google, Yahoo, MSN and Ask.com will be on a panel named MapOFF! to take place at Yahoo headquarters on April 11th. The panel includes Jeremy Kreitler of Yahoo, Thai Tran of Google Maps, Alex Daley of Microsoft Virtual Earth and Andy Yang of Ask.com, moderated by Brady Forrest of Microsoft. More information on the event here.

Posted by Barry Schwartz at 8:54 AM | Permalink

July 11, 2005

Ask Jeeves UK Begins Offering "Local Search" Services

Over the weekend I noticed that Ask Jeeves UK is beginning to roll out some local search services. You'll now find clickable links on the AJ UK homepage to driving directions and maps for the UK and Ireland. Both services are branded as part of "Ask Jeeves Local."

Posted by Gary Price at 12:49 PM | Permalink

February 2, 2005

Search Executives Talk Local

Local search initiatives continue to build momentum, and no wonder: By most accounts, between 20 and 40 percent of all search engine queries have some sort of local intent. In today's SearchDay article, Meet the Local Search Engines, Shari Thurow covers a recent Search Engine Strategies conference where executives from Overture, Ask Jeeves and AOL discussed their local search programs and the opportunities they provide for search marketers.

Posted by Chris Sherman at 11:45 AM | Permalink

November 3, 2004

Interface Changes at Ask Jeeves Local

Mr. Jeeves has just introduced a couple of interface changes on his recently launched Local Search (beta) service.

What's new?

+ The Local Search page now has six tabs/links located above the search box. Each interface is designed for a specific type of query. + Web (returns the searcher back to the main web interface) + Local Listings Jeeves uses data from CitySearch + Maps + Directions + Local News Powered by Topix + Expect a tab/link for "people search" to be added to the local search interface.

+ Ask has also added a "local" tab/link located directly above the main search box on the Ask Jeeves home page.

Posted by Gary Price at 5:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

September 17, 2004

Ask Jeeves Local: CitySearch Data Begins Appearing

In early August Jeeves announced a deal that would bring CitySearch local and business data to their database. Content would likely appear as "Smart Results". The announcement said that the data would begin appearing in about a month.

In the past couple of days I've started to notice some CitySearch local data appering on Jeeves.

Some examples of what the company is calling AJ Local: + Tampa restaurants Three listings appear, click "More Matching Listings" to find a full list, maps, and ratings.

+ Amusement Parks Chicago

+ Hair Salons Portland This results also provides a link to a "related category" and an option to change the city. In this case AJ assumes Portland, OR but makes switching to Portland, ME easy.

You can also go directly to the AJ Local interface.

Update: I'm also starting to notice PDF content in Teoma. Hooray!

Posted by Gary Price at 2:27 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

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