Yahoo's New Local Search is Great, Too Bad It'll Get Binged
Oh, the irony. One day after it was announced that Microsoft's Bing will be replacing Yahoo's own search engine on Yahoo.com, Yahoo! came out with a new local search functionality that ought to be the envy of every search engine.
Searching for local businesses on Yahoo now brings up a nice interface containing reviews, an overview, photos and driving directions inside a drop down box you can access without leaving the page you're on. It's a smoother user experience than Google or Bing offers and Yahoo may have more local business information than either of those two competitors can offer in-house as well.
The new Yahoo local search presentation is much more informative than what Bing offers and it's more graceful than what Google offers. Even on local searches where Google does have a lot of information, you often have to click over to a Google Maps page to learn more about a particular business. Removing that one pageload makes a big difference in a single user's experience - multiply that by millions and millions of people searching and this little change is a pretty big deal.
Presumably it will be replaced with Bing soon. Bing will no doubt improve, perhaps it will leverage some of what Yahoo! has already, but on face it seems like another loss of innovation and quality user experience due to trouble with monetization.
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Yahoo! Local search isn't part of the Bing deal. It will continue to be powered by Y!
Thanks for the comment, but I'm not sure this will be unaffected. This isn't a feature on local.yahoo.com - this is the local search on yahoo.com. local.yahoo.com doesn't have this new feature. i'm presuming yahoo.com search functions will more or less be replaced entirely by bing, no?
Only organic web searches are to be powered by Bing. Y! can augment, adorn, supplement search results on yahoo.com from any of its own vertical search properties.
I hope you're right because this new feature is great.
Pretty sad to see Yahoo take the low road and give up their engine for BING. After all, Microsoft has been doing search for a much shorter time than Yahoo, and the results that Yahoo delivered were higher quality than all search engines. Less garbage, more refined. Their only problem was that their editorial section for Yahoo SEM sucked.
Oh well, congrats to Bartz. She nailed Yahoo to the wall for the next 10 years. OUCH that's gotta hurt!
Michael Murdock, CEO
Marshall, this is only a reorganization of content, nothing new. All of this is available on local.yahoo.com and is just being presented differently on search.yahoo.com.
But you're right, Bing will probably override this new feature since this is on the main yahoo.com search page.
BongoBingTM to Challenge Microsoft’s Bing Trademark Application
The Trademark Trial and Appeal Board Issues Order Granting Extension until October 28, 2009
Framingham, Mass., July 30, 2009 – The Laptop Company, Inc., which owns and operates a web-based shopping platform through its BongoBingTM website (www.BongoBing.com), announced today that it has filed a request for an extension of time to oppose Microsoft Corporation (Nasdaq: MSFT) in its efforts to register a trademark for the name “Bing” with the United State Patent and Trademark Office. The Trademark Trial and Appeal Board then promptly granted the extension request until October 28, 2009.
BongoBing’sTM CEO and co-founder, Raul Pellerano, commented: “We have worked hard and invested significant resources in building our BongoBingTM brand and identity, our website and services, and our corporate identity. We believe it is important for a small company like The Laptop Company to continue to use its trademarks and conduct business without confusion in the marketplace.”
The Laptop Company, Inc. is represented on its request for an extension of time by Lando & Anastasi, LLP of Cambridge, Massachusetts. Microsoft Corporation is represented by the Seed IP Law Group PLLC of Seattle, Washington.
About The Laptop Company, Inc.
The Laptop Company, Inc., based in Framingham, Massachusetts, operates a web-based shopping platform through its proprietary website located at www.BongoBing.com. The Company was formed and is led by three recent Babson College graduates.
For more information, please visit www.BongoBing.com.
Contact
Raul Pellerano
raul@BongoBing.com
Hopefully this will mean viable competition to Google.
Yahoo Local is kinda comparable to Yelp now if you ask me. I like it. I like that it offers the crossstreets.
hey one way to find local serach results is to use www.Aafter.com.
ugh. the new Yahoo local search is great... http://bit.ly/s2jhn too bad it's going to get Binged [from http://twitter.com/marshallk/statuses/2932416016]
Posted by: Marshall Kirkpatrick
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August 11, 2009 10:28 AM
very thanks for article