Posts Tagged ‘ortsbezogene Suchdienste’
meinestadt.de: Regional Banner Ads for Small Businesses
5 May. 2010 | Author: 
The city portal meinestadt.de has expanded its offerings to include local online marketing. With the new “regioBanner”, firms and service providers can now make their position in their region more prominent using eye-catching ads and palmary positioning. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in General, Local Search, Local Search Engines, lokales SEM | 
Tags: meinestadt.de, ortsbezogene Suchdienste, regioBanner | 
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Yelp starts in the United Kingdom
In July 2004, the local search and ratings portal Yelp was founded in the USA. It has continued to expand since its launch, introducing a Canadian version in August 2008 and finally has crossed the Atlantic to Britain.
Yelp-CEO and co-founder Yeremy Stoppelman detailed the changes in the company blog. Now Yelp users can also search for undertakings, and relevant ratings in London and surroundings.
In a press announcement, Stoppelman disclosed that London has long been a planned destination – it being the center of the English-speaking world, and comes additionally as a result of the wishes of British Yelp users.
Yelp is one of the market leaders in the area of local Web2.0 portals in the USA. According to sources, Yelp’s users have submitted more than 4,5 million ratings. In December 2008 alone, the website recorded a total of 16,6 million unique visitors. Can one predict a similar success story in the UK? The competition has not been sleeping ¬ Yelp is going head-to-head with successful contenders, including Brownbook, Trusted Places and the German search and ratings portal Qype (already in Britain since June 2007).
Web Services with new iPhone applications
More and more Internet portals offering localized services are releasing new applications for the Apple iPhone. Google now offers a voice search, internet community lokalisten.de recently launched their own iPhone app, and Qype is working on one of their own software…
The new specialty of Google’s new iPhone software, according to a press release, is above all their new search by voice command, which at present is still only available in English; the second special feature being actual-location search. This update uses the localization function of the iPhone, making the search results even more specific (and ‘personal’). So one can search for “pizza” (by typing or speaking) and generate results directly in the user’s immediate vicinity, without having to specify the location via name or zip code.
The local friends community lokalisten.de has also recently released its own iPhone 3G version. In a press release, the operators explained that owners of iPhones with the software installed (always only available from the iTunes App Store) can access special features. For instance, the current standpoint of the user can be requested (via GPS) and directly relayed to the user’s friends on a map. Sending and receiving of news also is possible via iPhone. Lokalistas can thereby always see where their friends are and what they are currently doing.
Local search and rating platform Qype, on the other hand, is working on a new version for the iPhone. Qype CEO Stephan Uhrenbacher, in the company blog drew this to readers’ attention. Qype also uses the location-aware function, where the iPhone can transmit the actual location of the user. A release date for the application could not be made, at the time of the press release.
Posted in Local Search on the go, Local Search per Mobile phone, Local Search, Localization technology, New Search Machine Interest, News, Local Search Engines, Practical features |
Tags: Apple, Google, iPhone, Kulthandy, lokale Informationen, Lokalisten, Lokalisten.de, ortsbezogene Suchdienste, Qype, Spracheingabe |
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European Alliance for borderless Location Based Services
Location Based Services (LBS) as well as mobile location, will be offered cross-borders in the future. The German LBS provider Mecomo has joined with three European partners in the field of mobile local search, and formed the “Open Location Alliance” at the beginning of September 2008.
The Unterschleißheim-based (Munich) undertaking announced this in a recent press release. The founder partners, aside from Mecomo which offers local content and mobile services for Germany, Austria and Switzerland, are Mobile Commerce (for the United Kingdom), Visibilly, the Sweden-based company which also covers Norway and Finland, and Deveryware (for France).
Through this cooperation, the aim is to offer easily accessed localized applications and information in multiple European countries, from individual cell phones/mobile devices, said Mecomo. Further, the intention of the alliance is to draw up combined guidelines for cooperation, as well as business models, and develop technologies so as the expand the field of mobile localized services. Additional partners are being considered for the coalition, so as to expand to cover the widest possible geographic area possible.
