lsguy - 5:40 am on Jun 22, 2005 (gmt 0)

Just stumbled across this forum today. Some interesting and informed dialog. I will enjoy reading this going forward. Nice job Chicago.

MSN offering not a bad start IMO. Not too hard for them to add the other bells and whistles in due course - reviews, ratings, links to related websites, etc. - though I am a bit surprised they didn't get them into the first release. Assuming you explicitly specify your search location using Settings, the results are about the same as G!Local and Y!Local as far as I can tell.

UI features are fun, and generally easy to copy, so IMO the greater potential for differentiation lies in superior content to enable more granular searches that enable more relevant search resutlts. And of course the magic equation is content drives traffic drives ad revenues.

I suspect that most users want to refine their local searches by additional products/services/brands/qualifications etc. Eg coffee shop with wireless internet. Or camera store open sunday afternoon with Leica digital cameras cos they want to check one out in the flesh before they rush back home to buy it on the Internet.

Joe Average's favorite local search site of tomorrow will be the one that does the best job of compiling, on a per listing basis, primary (provided by the business itself) and secondary (provided via an indirect reference to the business on another website - either by crawling or as a direct feed) information about the business.

I'm sure the big boys understand this and are working as much on content acquisition as they are the search experience.

Not that I am involved in such a thing, but I wonder if there is an opportunity for a meta local search site - kinda like Google News for local search. Consumers would use such a site for the same reason they use Google News (no one site has everything, but between them they have most of what we want). Just a random thought...