March 17, 2004

"Google's goal is to connect searchers with the information they need whether it's half-way around the world or in their neighborhood," Google co-founder Sergey Brin said in a statement.

Google just launched "Google Local" late on Tuesday, joining rival Yahoo in staking out local search as a new frontier for growth.

Mountain View, California-based Google is expected to sell shares later this year in one of the U.S. technology industry's most anticipated initial public offerings since the Internet boom of the turn of the century.

The new search feature, developed in Google Labs and recently integrated with Google.com, allows users to draw from various information sources -- from Yellow Pages and local business listings to Google's index of four billion Web pages.

For example, users searching for a local bookstore would enter "bookstore" and their city or ZIP code. Google would then deliver a list of Web search results as well as a link to local search results which, when clicked, would list the addresses and phone numbers of nearby booksellers, and any related Web sites.

Clicking on a business name in the local list would deliver a new search results page with an easy-to-read map, directions, and more related Web pages.

Google said it is not currently selling lucrative paid-search advertising for local searches, but it plans to do so in the coming months. Such ad sales are seen by some as a potentially rich source of revenues for Web search companies.

Yahoo, Google's former search partner turned biggest competitor, rolled out its SmartView local search product earlier this month.

Greg Sterling, managing editor at the Kelsey Group, said he didn't see Yahoo being "substantially harmed" by the new Google offering, but added that traditional local advertising providers like Yellow Page publishers and newspapers could see their online growth opportunities pinched if new local Web search products are successful.

"I'm not ready to say game over, but I think by going into the marketplace, Yahoo and Google together put a lot of pressure on," Sterling said.

While Web search companies have the traffic to draw advertisers and the technology to make local search easier and more effective, big players in the multibillion-dollar offline local advertising market have personal relationships with clients and other assets at their disposal.

Source: Yahoo News

        

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