Posts Tagged ‘Suchdienst’
Localyte: Sherpa in der Hosentasche
2 Oct. 2009 | Author: Antonio De Mitri |
Der Reisedienst Localyte hat mit Pocket Sherpa einen neuen lokalen Suchdienst fürs iPhone gestartet. Wer privat oder geschäftlich unterwegs ist, kann mit der kostenlosen App Ortskundige nach Infos zum Reiseziel fragen.
Localyte (Motto: „Travel Like A Local“) verbindet Reisende mit Menschen vor Ort, die sich als virtuelle Stadtführer oder Ratgeber zur Verfügung stellen. Das Spektrum reicht von der kostenpflichtigen Führung bis hin zum Gratis-Tipp von Teilnehmern, die einfach nur helfen wollen. Ob jedoch Reaktionszeiten von „wenigen Stunden“, wie es Localyte-Chef Guillermo Baensch auf TechCrunch ausdrückt, für die Nutzer ausreichend sind, sei dahingestellt. Nach eigenen Angaben umfasst der Service inzwischen 40.000 Stadtführer an mehr als 10.000 Zielen in 160 Ländern. Viele davon hat Localyte via Social Networking gewonnen, zum Beispiel über ein eigenes Facebook-Profil und einen Twitter-Account.
Posted in Web Communities, Local Search on the go, Local Search per Mobile phone, Local Search, News, Local Search Engines, Practical features | 
Tags: App, facebook, iPhone, local search, Locality, Localyte, Pocket Sherpa, Reisedienst, Reiseziel, sherpa, social networking, Stadtführer, Suchdienst, Twitter | 
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Twittern und lokal suchen
13 Aug. 2009 | Author: Antonio De Mitri |
Tupalo.com, ein österreichischer Web-2.0-Suchdienst, der sich selbst als Social Yellow Pages bezeichnet, ist jetzt auch über Twitter zu erreichen.
Laut einer Pressemitteilung können die „Tupaleros“ künftig über den Login bei Twitter direkt auf Tupalo.com gehen und dessen Services nutzen. Dazu gehören, ähnlich dem in Deutschland bekannteren Dienst qype, unter anderem die Suche nach interessanten Anbietern aus unterschiedlichsten Branchen, die der User bewerten kann, die Anzeige auf der Karte von Google Maps inklusive Routenplanung oder auch das Hochladen von Fotos einer Location. Auch umgekehrt funktioniert das Angebot: Tupalo-User können ihre Berichte automatisch auf Twitter posten.
Posted in Web Communities, Local Search per PC, Local Search, News, Local Search Engines |
Tags: google maps, LBS, Location, Qype, Suchdienst, Tupaleros, Tupalo, Twitter, Twittern, Web-2.0, yellow pages |
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Yahoo! Maps is now multilingual
The USA version of Yahoo! Maps, the local search, map and route portal operated by Yahoo! is now speaking in German, among other languages!
In December 2008, Yahoo! expanded the international coverage of its USA-version (see our post), and as they announced then, 2009 would follow with further innovations.
The changes have started to be implemented: since an update in February, users are able to display the Yahoo! Maps website in several different languages. This was announced by Yahoo! staffer Gus Maldonado in the Yahoo! Geo Technologies Blog. Languages can be selected using the “Language” menu item [surprise!] on the right side of the map view, offering French, Italian, Spanish and German, alongside the original English. Further one is now able to display route distances in either miles or kilometers.
However, this service is not yet really implemented, for example, for Germany. The route planner for Germany recognizes a tiny selection of locations, and local search doesn’t function at all for Germany. For German-speaking Yahoo! users, it is better to use Yahoo!’s local search German-version de.local.yahoo.com and the German-version route planner de.routeplanner.yahoo.com.
Posted in Local Search on the go, Local Search, News, Practical features |
Tags: Deutsch, Routenplaner, Routenplanung, Routenportal, Suchdienst, Suchdienste, Yahoo, Yahoo! Maps, Local Search |
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New search engine wants to deliver concrete results
WeFind, a new Web2.0 search service, launched at the end of November 2008.
As delineated by its creators in a press release, the goal of WeFind is to deliver concrete answers and clean, structured information to searchers. To this end, WeFind automatically assigns the thematic area (e.g. “general” or “health”) of the search, and then sorts the resultant lists into special areas, such as “current news’, “pharmacies” or “cafés”.
To facilitate this new slant of search, specialized new search algorithms have been developed, for instance for the researching of news portals and blogs, as well as the products of cooperative partners. According to WeFind, the company is collaborating with national and international partners – users can find books and other products from Amazon, public notices from German official agencies, doctor/medical evaluations (delivered with DocInsider) or company information via Firmenwissen.de.
A local search option has also been introduced – if the user searches for “Naturheilverfahren in 10435″ [en=alternative medical in 10435], WeFind automatically finds relevant content, and will expand its range to person searches. Special here is that people discovered through the resultant search(es), would be able to be contacted directly via the WeFind community. “We can thus keep our fingers on the pulse and join up search and community: information can be searched for, WeFind delivers appropriate experts and provides the direct contact facility. After a discussion with the experts, the searcher may also subsequently publish new discoveries on WeFind, and become an expert too”, said Helmut Hoffer von Ankershoffen, initiator and CEO of WeFind AG, in a press release. This explains why WeFind sees itself as a Web2.0 initiative.
The new search service is run by WeFind AG, a daughter firm of neofonie Technologieentwicklung und Informationsmanagement GmbH.
mySonar: local community with ‘currency’
Using mySonar, a local web community, members can find friends, dates, parties, as well as locations such as restaurants, cafés, gyms or gas stations in their immediate vicinity, using either cell phone or PC.
The operators, mySonar GbR, in a press release explained: purely by entering one’s current location and the desired search radius. At the start of the service in July 2008, mySonar already offered almost 30,000 such locations in their databank. According to the service, there is now access to more than 61,000 similar locations across Germany.
If your favorite location is not yet available, one can simply register it oneself, and even be rewarded for the entry using the so-called $onars. $onars are a community currency, with which users can send SMS or pay mySonar partners for entry or services. The latter is actually a really good ad idea, enabling those firms accepting the $onars to gain new clients and to reserve ad-space on mySonar.
Those wishing to use mySonar must register and needs either a PC or internet-ready mobile device. The service requires no software installation and is free. However the standard (internet/telephonic) connection fees apply.
Pepped up: GelbeSeiten.de gets new functions
The online-presence of the online directory GelbeSeiten.de has been overhauled, and presents itself after a relaunch, in a new, fresh ‘look’ and offering new features.
In a press release, the operators describe the relaunch motto as “Less is More”, seen in the concentration on essentials. The start page is dominated by the Search field and the Branch Finder. The former Map Search item, which was previous visually front and center, is now relegated to the edge, along with the ‘Shopping’ item, both being found as tabs above the Search field. This new layout offers the user a better graphical orientation, especially facilitating the Search function, said the operators.
Additionally, several new practical features serve to simplify the Search experience for users, continued the press release. These include the suggestion list on typing in the Search field and the optimized Branch Finder. If search terms are incorrectly spelt, an automatic correction is suggested. Useful is also the improved local area search, and the new filter functions, where one can limit the results by branch, detail and city area. Moreover, the results are all displayed on a single map. And whoever wishes now can save interesting results on an electronic notepad, which can be printed later.
Also new are multimedia content. Advertisers can now present themselves and their offering using photos and video. Results reflecting these are displayed prominently in the results lists and advertiser pages.
Townster is sold to highest bidder on eBay
After Townster, a local search and ratings portal with networking capability, was offered for several months for sale on eBay, it was recently finally sold.
As can be seen in the offer page on the online-marketplace, the virtual hammer fell for Euro 37,827.77 for the platform. A real bargain, considering more than Euro 150,000 had been invested in the project. The new owner of the portal is the Ex-OnVista head Michael W. Schwetje, posted Townster co-founder Gleb Tritus in his personal blog.
Townster was launched in summer 2007 (see our article). After an unsuccessful financing round and disputes among the founders in November 2007, the hunt for a buyer was started for this local search presence. According to a post by Gleb Tritus in Townster’s company blog, the sale did not happen at that stage, because the interested parties were only interested in taking on the portal with the full team. The team members had by that stage essentially been dissolved and were committed to other projects. Finally, it was decided to offer the platform via ebay auction. However, even after the successful sale, Townster is still a topic for its previous owners- they are planning to “support Michael & Co. as they hunt for suitable new team members, so that Townster can relaunch on the same track as beforehand.”
Google Maps builds on the knowledge of its users
Google knows that Users know their own areas best of all. The search engine giant is now allowing users of its German-language Maps site, to edit and append the search results.
The ability to rate entries has been available to registered Google-Account holders, as of June 2007. Now users have the possibility to change these – such as when address details are incorrect or incomplete, or the markers are incorrectly positioned on the maps. Indeed an out-of-date result can be completely deleted. All these functions can be found in the respective Info-Window of each search result page, accessible through a click on the “Bearbeiten” [en=edit] link. This however can only be done as long as the owner of the undertaking themselves have not ‘claimed’ control over the entry and have verified the information themselves.
If a location is missing, registered users can complete or add to the results. To access this, the user clicks on the link “Add Location to Map”.
These features have been available on other language editions (eg. the USA edition) of Google since March 2008 (see our post).
Google Maps edges localized ads more into view
For quite a while now, Google Maps has offered localized advertising, visible on search results pages. As of recently, these ads have now been moved into a more prominent position directly under the generated map.
Ads on the Google Maps site are now displayed on the left side of the pages, either or both above and below the results list. To clearly separate the ads from the results, the ads are generated in blue, and labelled with “Advert” [de=Anzeige]. In addition, Google is also now allowing ads to appear directly in the map views – whereas regular search results are marked in red, ads are given the option of various special symbols, which are then also linked visually with the text link at the left.
On each results page, a total of 4 Adwords Ads are displayed, with one above, and three below the search results. The latest innovation is that now the three lower ads can also be displayed under the map view, and therefore in the center of the page. However, only one of the three lower ads is ever visible at one time… one can navigate to the other two ads using an arrow button.
The reasons for these new measures probably came as a result that most users usually only saw the upper search results, and the lower results are certainly viewed less often, if at all. With the addition of the results directly under the map, Google is trying to compensate for the lost views, by raising these ads effectively to display higher up on the page.
Posted in Local Search per PC, Local Search, New Search Machine Interest, News, Local Search Engines, lokales SEM |
Tags: Anzeige, Anzeigen, Google, google maps, Kartensuche, lokale Informationen, Maps, Suchdienst, Suchmaschinenmarketing, Suchmaschinenprimus, Suchmaschinenriese, Werbung |
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Sharper images for Google Maps
As of the start of September, our globe has been under a further scrutinous eye – that of the GeoEye-1 Satellite, an undertaking of the USA company GeoEye. Google in the future will be one of the customers using the current satellite images delivered by this company.
In a press release, GeoEye explains how the new spacecraft, which orbits at 681km (XXX miles), is fitted with the highest resolution camera available in the non-governmental sphere. Black and white photos are delivered in a resolution of 0,41 meter, and color photos at 1,65 meter. That means objects on the surface are recognizable at sizes from 41cm and 165cm respectively.
According to A report on CNet details a contract between Google and GeoEye, giving the search engine giant the exclusive use of the images, in the sphere of online-map services. Google will use these for its online applications Google Maps and Google Earth. However, Google will be unable to offer the best resolution images to its clients, as US regulations limit GeoEye to offer photos to the commercial sector with a resolution of 0,5m or worse.
Posted in Local Search per PC, Local Search, News, Local Search Engines |
Tags: GeoEye, Google, google maps, local, Maps, Satellit, Suchdienst, Suchmaschine, Suchmaschinenprimus, Suchmaschinenriese, Suchmaschinenriesen |
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