Archive for the ‘Local Search’ Category

As Google receives a good deal of critique for its new personalized internet search, Foursquare has been receiving much positive feedback from its users for its similar direction. The geolocation service has released its “Explore” service, which was previously available on the mobile application, online. Users can immediately begin to discover personally recommended places all over the world under foursquare.com/explore.
Based on the more than 1.5 billion check-ins from the community members as well as numerous tips, users can now receive personalized recommendations for restaurants, bars, museums, or other locations in the vicinity or place of choice, according to the Foursquare blog. The location-based check-in service has implemented artificial intelligence in its search engine: the more a user checks in, the better Foursquare is at finding new locations, according to the post.

“Explore” is not only personalized, but specific: the majority of search engines generate very general results: users searching for “pizza” will get the same list of pizza restaurants, regardless of preference of crust, whether the restaurant could be considered “fast” food, or if the user would rather sit down. The “Explore” tool instead allows users to conduct a full-text search, which helps make the search more specific, so that users only get the results that might be interesting to them, say a pizza restaurant that serves extra crispy crust. But that’s not all: the search can further be reduced in which the user sorts between the categories “Where I haven’t been yet”, “Where I’ve already been”, “Where my friends have been”, or “places offering Foursquare deals” – which are offerings for group check-ins. The geotagging service sees its new web-based feature as a step in the direction of a big idea: “[Foursquare] is always connecting you to the most interesting things nearby, wherever you happen to be in the world.”

Explore is not just an exciting new development, but also means that Foursquare will be joining the local search market – and is already recognizing the need for personalized information.

The eleventh representation Ipsos-study about the use of directories has released some amazing results: not only do 96.3 percent of all Germans use various directories in their search for private and business contacts in addition to shopping possibilities, but also that the printed version remains the most popular. This makes 2011 the busiest year for directories, despite competition from search engines and other locally and regionally oriented media forms, according to the VDAV (Verband Deutscher Auskunfts- und Verzeichnismedien), who directed the study. Read the rest of this entry »

Tupalo.com – a local search platform which doubles as an international directory and rating-community – has announced a new partnership with the technology start-up Yext. Tupalo users in the USA should now be able to find local service providers even more efficiently with the help of the new Yext information provided. Read the rest of this entry »

The mobile application for the iPhone from Das Örtliche now boasts over one million downloads. What does this success mean? The app provides a dependable, mobile local-search, with which users can find service providers and retailers on-the-go and find the way there with a built-in route planner. Read the rest of this entry »

The US-Patent Office has promised Apple a patent for location-based information services that may effect other providers of location-based services. The industrial property law with the code RE42,927 and the title “System and method for obtaining an using location specific information” is broad enough to affect all mobile services using location-based material. Read the rest of this entry »

Since the beginning of the month, meinestadt.de offers local deal coupons in addition to regional deal guides. Users can find new deals from national coupon platforms like Groupon or DailyDeal, in addition to regional deal offerings in the new “Deals” menu.
After choosing the preferred city, users are directly directed to the latest local deals. For now, there will be about 2,000 deals from the approximately 70 largest cities in Germany, according to a press release. Those who come from smaller cities can see deals within 80 kilometers. In addition, everyone can access the national “online-deals”. These appear automatically under the offering for local deals.

Those who prefer to receive the latest deals in their email can also subscriber to the deal-newsletter.

As of this week, users can now search for organic and eco-friendly retailers in their city by using the website SuchDichGrün.de. The site, currently offered in the beta-version, provides users with a collective of various retailers throughout Germany, which offer an array of organic and/or eco-friendly products. Read the rest of this entry »

The search engine giant’s deal service Google Offers now offers personalized local deals in addition to a wide offering of daily deals. Read the rest of this entry »

The 25 million user strong general interest online portal T-Online.de is now joining the local search bandwagon: as a response to the growing demand for local services and information, the service massively expanded its regional offering at the beginning of October. Users now have access to 346 city and county portals with regional to local news, information, and services available, according to a press release from the Deutsche Telekom, the carrier of the online portal. Read the rest of this entry »

Starting immediately, regional ad customers from meinestadt.de can book directory ads as well as Google AdWords. This is made possible by a strategic alliance between the two internet giants. The city portal offers small businesses full service tools for local online marketing, claims the site. Read the rest of this entry »