Chicago - 4:25 pm on Feb 20, 2005 (gmt 0)

nice perspective, iamlost, thanks. a couple nagging points remain based upon your ideas: eyeballs and utility.

advertisers follow the eyeballs.

by encouraging/promoting the utilties/differences of the two tools at minimum, you split audiences. fine, i suppose with a ppc model, not fine for yp advertisers with annual pfi agreements looking for return. overtime, wouldn't the yp advertisers in and of themselves, at minimum, demand cross-distribution, notwithstanding consolidation?

then there is utility. look at the blurring of utility already in Y's YP environment, as it incorporates open search, proximity scoring, maps, richer meta content, etc.. in the end, the functions of the YP must change (as they currently are on Y's YP) to incorporate the demands of the user - including *relevancy*, peer review, distance/mapping, richer buying information etc.

the segmentation and progress of local search tools will marginalize the utility of yp structures, or the lines will become increasingly blurred as yps strive for utility, which supports the argument for a single tool.