Local search 66
Discovery search implies that the searcher knows, for example, what she wants but not who she needs it from (i.e.,
pizza on Main Street in Springfield).
In February 2012, Google announced that they made 40 changes to their search algorithm, including one codenamed
"Venice" which Google states will improve local search results by "relying more on the ranking of (Google's) main
search results as a signal",[1] meaning local search will now rely more on organic SERPs (Search Engine Result
Pages).Private label local search
Traditional local media companies, including newspaper publishers and television and radio broadcasters, are
starting to add local search to their local websites in an effort to attract their share of local search traffic and
advertising revenues in the markets they serve. These local media companies either develop their own technology, or
license "private label" or "white label" local search solutions from third-party local search solution providers. In
either case, local media companies base their solution on business listings databases developed in-house or licensed
from a third-party data publisher.
Traditional print directory publishers also provide local search portals. Most regions around print directory
publishers have an online presence.Social local search
Local search that incorporates internal or external social signals could be considered social local search driven. The
first site to incorporate this type of search was Explore To Yellow Pages. Explore To uses Facebook Likes as one of
the signals to increase the ranking of listings where other factors may be equal or almost equal. Typical ranking
signals in local search, such as keyword relevancy and distance from centroid can therefore be layered with these
social signals to give a better crowdsourced experience for users.Mobile local search
Several providers have been experimenting with providing local search for mobile devices. Some of these are
location aware. In the United States, Google previously operated an experimental voice-based locative service
(1-800-GOOG-411 [2]) but terminated the service in November, 2010. Many mobile web portals require the
subscriber to download a small Java application, however the recently added .mobi top level domain has given
impetus to the development of mobile targeted search sites are based upon a standard mobile specific XML protocol
that all modern mobile browsers understand. The advantage is that no software needs to be downloaded and
installed, plus these sites may be designed to simultaneously provide conventional content to traditional PC users by
means of automatic browser detection.Business owners and local search
Electronic publishers (such as businesses or individuals) who would like information such as their name, address,
phone number, website, business description and business hours to appear on local search engines have several
options. The most reliable way to include accurate local business information is to claim business listings through
Google's, Yahoo!'s, or Bings's respective local business centers.
It is ever so more important today that small business owners claim their free local listing with Google Places since
Google Places is often one of the first listings seen on Google's search result page whenever there algorithm deems a
keyword query to have local intent.
Example of |google places listings in organic search [3] from Google’s search engine, based on the user’s IP address
in Toronto.