Can Google Map Out the Future of Local Search?
I have the pleasure of sharing the final day Kelsey Interactive Local Media Conference honors with the Director of Google Earth & Maps, John Hanke, next week in Los Angeles.
Following the Hanke, of Keyhole fame, ”keynote” on how Google is “contributing to the local ecosphere via local search, maps, directories, and classifieds.” I will be joining Kelsey analysts on stage, tasked with opining on the state of local online: “Revolution, or evolution.”
The Google Lat Long Blog may have provided the world today with a preview of what the “Keyhole’s” keynote will feature: “Think globally, mark locally.”
In lauding the latest Google Map functionality enhancement, however, Google itself, perhaps unwittingly, acknowledges the fragile nature of the local search experience today.
Seth LaForge, Software Engineer, Google Maps, confides:
The last time I threw a party, I used the MyMaps feature of Google Maps to tell my friends exactly how to find my house. But if they’d just searched Maps on their own for my address and had gone to the marker location, they would have been partying in the middle of the street!
Now for your next party (or any other occasion), you can move the marker for your address to show the exact entrance of your house. Just search for your address, click “Edit,” click “Move Marker,” and drag the marker to your front door.
All is good, NOW, then? Not quite.
LaForge’s Google Maps colleague, Jess Lee, Product Manager, lauded MyMaps at the Official Google Blog in April, “Map-Making: So easy a caveman could do it.” Apparently, cavemen invite their party guests to socialize “in the middle of the street”!
Moral of the Google Maps story? Google may rule “universal search,” but local is in a world of its own, an exciting world where the outcome is NOT guaranteed by Google, or cavemen!
Revolution, or evolution, many, many local players are happily giving Google a run for its local money and I have the honor of interviewing startup CEOs striving to be revolutionary locals. For example:
Stepan Pachikov: EverNote Web 2.0 Perfect Mobile Storm To Hit in 2008, INTERVIEW
MerchantCircle CEO Aims To Disrupt Local Advertising $39 billion Spend: INTERVIEW
AnchorFree CEO: Hotspot Local Ad Network Beats Google, Yahoo, INTERVIEW
Powerhouse Google, on the other hand, STILL is challenged to fully realize its monetizable local potential, runnerup Yahoo too! SEE:
Naked Google Maps: NO Local Ads For Hungry Motorists
Local Ad Sales War: Why Google is a Guaranteed Winner
Google, Yahoo CAN’T Crack Local Ad Sales Code
Yahoo Wants $12 billion Local Search Ad Spend, So Does CitySquares
1-800 Pay-Per-Call: Marchex Buys VoiceStar, $4 billion Local Advertising Bonanza?
Google Local Search Gold Mine: When Does Google Cash In?
RH Donnelley Means Business.com: Google Feeling Vertical Search Heat
MORE INSIDER CHATTER LOCAL INSIGHTS & INTERVIEWS: Judy’s Book: What’s On Sale? WE ARE! Ten Reasons Why and How Pegasus News Fuels Local Media Business Model for Fisher Communications: INTERVIEW
SEE YOU THERE? CONTACT DONNA BOGATIN