Archive for the ‘Local Search Engines’ 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 directory Gelbe Seiten is clearly reacting to the growing demand for applications for smartphones and tablet computers: the company has released new apps for the iOS operating system, Android, as well as Bada. Read the rest of this entry »

Meinestadt.de has added a new rating feature to its mobile local-search application for the iPhone and Android. Users can immediately begin to see user ratings for stores, services, and restaurants, and add in their own two cents, all on-the-go. Read the rest of this entry »

Microsoft has released its geodata service “Streetside” in Germany as a new feature on its local search engine, “Bing Maps”. Bing Maps has thus become a competitor on the same level of “Google Maps”, which has offered its own panoramic image service “Street View” for about a year. Read the rest of this entry »

Google has taken over the company Clever Sense, which developed the successful local recommendation app “Alfred”. The startup seems to be over-joyed about the current developments, as seen in a press statement. The team is excited to belong to Google. Through cooperation, the company is one step closer to helping the world around itself. Read the rest of this entry »

Despite numerous speculations regarding the end of the never-ending row of online coupons, but investors continue to pump large sums into companies like LivingSocial and Plum District. The deal portals, which have specialized themselves in location-based group deals, especially wish to expand their unique selling points with the extended financial support in order to improve their position against competition. But the competition is still strong: the leader of the pack Groupon has introduced a new online-booking possibility with an appointment planner with its new Groupon Scheduler. 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 free mobile local search application from the directory Gelbe Seiten is now available for all BlackBerry-smartphones that have the 7 OS operating system. According to Gelbe Seiten, the app makes the newest version of the BlackBerry OS to a pocket-sized, multi-media directory expert. Read the rest of this entry »

The free local search application “Places” from TomTom is now available for Android smartphone users, just three months after the launch of the iPhone app. Users can find stores, restaurants, and sights in their vicinity within eight countries. The app combines data from ten million POIs (Points of Interest) from local directories in the corresponding country, according to TomTom. In Germany, the company is working together with Gelbe Seiten. 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 »