2020systems Blog

We will be in Las Vegas, Nevada from 3/26 - 3/31.  Contact us if you want to meet up.

2020 Systems

It’s been a long time since AOL has done anything in local search. All its team members left (Jim Riesenbach and Mark Canon went to Autobytel and Gerry Campbell went to Reuters, among other departures).

The “new” (beta) AOL local search is MapQuest + AOL City Guide content and ratings. It’s a simple and nice looking site.

We will NOT be intergrating AOL Local into our 2020 IYP service YET (at least in the short term, as this is a beta service that hasn’t been fully launched to the public yet. We will wait for more meaningful traffic data from AOL to see if it is feasible and beneficial for our customers)

Yahoo has added a Suggestion Board for its Yahoo Local service.  Some of the ideas are excellent and some were bleak.  Nevertheless, the board is a great idea from Yahoo. 

We will be in Manhattan, New York from 3/10 - 3/18.  Contact us if you want to meet up.

Piper Jaffray recently issued a 425 page (that’s right) report on all things and trends Internet.  It’s called “The User Revolution: The New Advertising Ecosystem and the Rise of the Internet As a Mass Medium.”

Here are some tidbits about the local advertising market:

Based on our discussion with various industry sources, we believe local search already comprises between 10%-30% of the queries. Our 2006 Online Media Survey indicated that local search was the second most popular online service.

Piper pegs Internet local search — here defined as “IYP, local search, and classifieds” — at $4.5 billion today, which is 12% of the total local ad pie now. The U.S. market potential (over 10 years) will be $25.9 billion (a healthy 575% growth over the next 10 years) according to the investment firm.

Piper believes that local search can eventually be 50% of all search volume (up from about 25% currently according to our estimates), assuming improvements in data quality, completeness, and several other upgrades and innovations.

Accordingly, this further reinforces our views that searching online will be done more on a local basis and that smart companies are shifting their offline budgets to online offerings.

Following the footprints of Yahoo and Microsoft, Google today finally adds up-to-date traffic conditions to its Google Maps service.

Consumers can now see real-time traffic conditions to help them plan their schedule and route. If you’re in San Francisco, New York, Chicago, Dallas, or any of the other 30 cities that they are covering initially, just click on the traffic button to show current traffic speeds directly on the map. If your route shows red, you’re looking at a stop-and-go commute; yellow, you could be a little late for dinner; green, you’ve got smooth sailing.

All customers who subscribe to our 2020 IYP service will benefit as Google Maps becomes more useful and will therefore attract more users. Your ad will see more exposures.