Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Google Maps, Part Deux

Our man Evan nailed it with his observation that Google is ready to pick the ripe fruit that is local search. Adding reviews puts it head to head with CitySearch and the yellow page directories, and Google is likely to come out on top.

The local yellow pages industry hasn't done a great job so far in serving advertisers or consumers, so Google could easily dominate if the company does things right.

Why? Because if you search for a business category and a city state (such as pizza in Raleigh) in Google, then its Maps/Local results along with a map is the first result. However, Google hasn't fully optimized this service yet because for some cities (such as my West Linn), you also have to type in the state name or postal code (OR) for the Maps results to come up first.

In this way, Google will drive considerable traffic through its main search engine to its Maps/Local and take away traffic from local directory competitors. Local search is a multi-billion dollar industry, and it will grow much bigger with Google in the lead.

Posted By John Gartner at 09:15 AM
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