Webwork - 8:43 pm on Jul 23, 2007 (gmt 0)

I'm not sure YellowPages.com or Hoovers or any of the various data aggregators would agree that directories are an anachronism.

I don't either.

My view is that there are only so many businesses in the world and indexing and making that data accessible is not beyond the ability of a directory.

Besides, what are SERPs (search engine result pages) if not a directory assembled - on the fly - from a database?

Like others who have tracked "the industry" I whinced years ago at the directory/data providers inability to get up to speed - to get their data online. As best I can tell, despite some initial glacial inertia, they are moving to reclaim the search space.

Do I use the online YP? Yes, from time to time. For example, when I am targeting a service vertical by location. Why? Well, the SERPs are not exactly a thing of beauty when you want to search a vertical, especially by location - though they are improving.

I give Google its props but, unlike many, I've never held that it was the end game of making business connections - which is what folks are doing when they use a search engine "to find a business or service provider". Rather, I've always taken Google's rise as an evolutionary step. Google's oracle-like quality wowed the masses, drew them in and convinced many that "there is no other, no other is needed". Humbug.

Social networking comes along and suddenly business leads are being found or funneled, not through search engines, but by the new word of mouth - referrals from amongst one's network. Just like the old days, only adapted to the medium. (And look at who is rumored to be interested in buying Facebook.) But social networking isn't the end of business lead development. (Sorry if I keep forgeting to call it search, but I'm afraid that "search" may someday be an anachronism, so I'm preparing . . )

Vertical search has been the subject of considerable buzz for the past few years. That's a wide open opportunity, one that is within the means of other players. Then there's local search.

Local search? Don't search engines do that too? Yes, but . . man . . is local search ever ripe for picking by the local folks . . and local players. Cityname.tld? Works in a variety of ways as a platform for community and business lead development and reviews and . . (All these business and sales leads keep leaking outside of the search box. Is that bad? Should we patch the leak?)

Cityname.tld isn't where search ends. What about direct navigation? As the direct navigation market has matured we've gone from generic "take all comers" landers, with the same links on every page, to highly targeted landers. Who woulda thunk! I can search for "blue widget vendors" and find a virtual directory of them simply by typing BlueWidgets.tld or BlueWidgetStore.tld!

There is so much search, so much networking, so many forms of connecting going - so many ways that business leads are being generated - that it's well beyond presumptuous to assert that the business search game is over, that Google has won, and that other forms - such as directories - are no longer a valid model. Any such asserttion, even one that comes close to it is . is . hmm, how can I say this politely . .?

It's not entirely right. ;-P

[edited by: Webwork at 9:05 pm (utc) on July 23, 2007]