Over the course of four jam-packed days last month, local search professionals from across the country and around the world gathered in Las Vegas for the inaugural Local Search Association annual conference, “Search Starts Here.”

As the theme suggests, the goal of this year’s conference was to explore how local search companies are leveraging new opportunities in online and mobile search to drive leads for local businesses.

With consumer preferences shifting to these new areas, we were interested in developing a better understanding of how the industry is responding to a growing desire by local businesses for integrated advertising strategies, and greater, more transparent results. That said, we also wanted to discuss how print continues to provide local businesses with a strong stream of quality leads.

Both local search providers and their small business customers can benefit from a stronger grasp of where the industry is heading and growing trends among their peers. Here are our six key takeaways from the conference:

1.  Social Media Is A Natural Extension Of The Local Search Experience

Many of us who live and breathe local search understand the growing value of integrating social media into the advertising strategies of our small business customers. But finding ways to convey the importance and opportunity of social media to small businesses—and how it fits into their existing (or yet undeveloped) digital strategies—is not always an easy task.

In a keynote speech at the conference, Facebook’s director of North America sales, Yvette Lui, provided a clear and compelling case for why social media should be a component of local advertising.

According to Lui, personal networks are playing a growing role in driving purchasing decisions. Instead of coming online with a topic in mind, Liu said consumers now “come to listen and learn” from the people and businesses they care about. She said this presents a perfect opportunity for small businesses to gain an advantage, because they too are essentially social by design.

Based on this approach, Lui offered the following advice to small business owners:

• Create an authentic identity to foster relationships
• Advertise to build a community
• Bring people to your business with social ideas
• Make the point of sale and in-store experience social
• Run sponsored stories to amplify the word of mouth and help new people discover your business.

Lui also noted that amplified word of mouth via Facebook has the potential to reach a large audience at an extremely fast rate. With the average Facebook user having 130 friends on the social networking site, connecting with one loyal customer can mean potentially tapping into 130 more people that know and trust their friends “likes,” “check-ins,” or comments.

By incentivizing customers to check into a store and share their opinions/experience with their friends, the ROI potential from this investment in engagement is potentially significant.

2. Mobile Is The Next Frontier Of Local Search

Growth in smartphone use – including iPhones, Androids and BlackBerries – is rising fast, and the impact on local business advertising will surely be significant. The challenge for local search providers, however, will be creating services that successfully leverage the growing array of mobile opportunities and help small businesses integrate the platform into their daily operations.

Today, stats on mobile growth are off the charts. Smartphone use grew 54% year-over-year and now reflects 28% of total US mobile users. GPS capable handsets rose 16% year over year and now represent 73% of total US mobile users.

As a result of these trends, mobile advertising is expected to increase from 15% of the online advertising market to more than 60% in 2015, according to Borrell Associates. Furthermore, there are a variety of new and potentially game-changing mobile offerings on the horizon.

As Neil Salvage, EVP of advertising at CityGrid Media noted in his presentation, lat / long detecting applications, push offers, card-linked offers and mobile payments will play an important role in the local space because their return-on-investment can be easily tracked. It’s clear that local businesses that haven’t started to develop and activate a mobile advertising strategy are already behind and could be putting potential new leads at risk.

3.  Daily Deals Show Promise, But Real Test Will Be Repeat Business

Many of us have personally experienced or read articles about how daily deals sites such as Groupon and LivingSocial are providing local businesses with an unprecedented avenue to attract large-scale and rapid sales for discounted services. However, not much has been said about whether or not these opportunities provide real long-term benefit to local businesses, which make a significant investment in offering the deals.

Rich Razgaitis of Reach Deals and Martin Tobias of Tipper participated in a panel about the growing daily deals space, which currently boasts more than 500 daily deals sites.

The two noted that while advertisers discount their products and services and share profits with the daily deal provider, they’re not being asked to pay anything up front – a very attractive model to some small businesses looking for new customers. Different than coupons, the daily deal model incentivizes quick purchases and promotes engagement with purchaser’s networks.

When asked to explain the difference between the daily deal and coupon model, Tobias cited the extremely high and fast redemption rate as compared to coupons – around 70% are used in the first 30 days of purchase.

To be a win-win for SMBs and consumers, daily deal companies will need to encourage relationships with merchants over time, as opposed to selling as many as they can in one day. This will allow for a particular business to repeat this model in a month, three months, or even quarterly.

Nonetheless, in the meantime, daily deals are providing an exciting and effective new way for local businesses to promote their offerings.

4.  Print Business Directories Continue To Provide Quality Leads

There is a great deal of excitement about new local advertising platforms, but one should not overlook the significant role that print continues to play in driving leads to small businesses. As the local media environment continues to evolve, many local businesses still rely on print as their greatest source of local leads and a foundation of a successful advertising strategy.

Just look at the numbers. Print Yellow Pages attract 11 billion references annually by consumers searching for local business information, according to our annual Local Media Tracking Study conducted by Burke.

Statistics also show that 54% of consumers said they referenced print Yellow Pages in the last month, which is within single digits of the 58% of consumers who said they referenced search engines. Furthermore, almost 7 out of 10 adults surveyed (68%) said they contacted a business after finding it in the print Yellow Pages.

Print Yellow Pages offerings include the same ROI components as advertising on other platforms, so local businesses can keep a close eye on the ability of their print ads to attract quality leads.

5.  Demonstrating ROI Is Challenging, New Methods Are Emerging

In today’s extensive and fragmented media environment, it’s increasingly difficult for local search providers to demonstrate the individual performance of local advertising initiatives. With that in mind, many companies are developing innovative approaches and cutting-edge tools designed to give local businesses the reassurance they need that their advertising is paying off.

In a panel discussion on changing sales trends in the local search industry, Ken Ray, vice president and chief marketing officer, AT&T, noted that metrics alone are simply not enough to satisfy local businesses:

“Most of us have moved into SEM so we’re looking at cost per click and cost per lead,” said Ray. “We’ve made real learning around pay per call. Now the whole conversation has changed. What kind of call is it? … How long was the call? … Was it a local call? We’re working with customers to really figure out what makes them comfortable about the calls.”

A presentation at the conference by C.J. Arseneau, director of marketing at Telmetrics, a call measurement solutions company, focused on several offerings that I think represent a good start in the industry’s efforts to tackle both the metrics and the “quality” aspects of local advertising measurement.

One tool allows local providers to attribute calls to specific advertising campaigns. Phone numbers on advertiser websites are dynamically replaced with call tracking numbers based on how the user arrived at the website, so local businesses can determine where calls are coming from – whether it’s a search engine or another local search provider.

Another tool automatically tracks and transcribes calls and provides data for advertiser review in real-time. Detailed analytics on the keywords used on calls help inform marketing, sales and operations departments at businesses about the impact of their advertising strategies.

In a separate session, Daniel Shaked, founder and CEO of NO PROBLEM, described his company’s approach of allowing consumers to post their service need, and then enabling local businesses to bid on the service in real-time based on their immediate new business demand. Interestingly, each business’ cost per call is based on their unique bid for the call. The advantage of this approach is that if an business decides not to bid on a job at all, they do not have to pay for a potential call.

These are just a few examples of the types of tools now available to local businesses to help them better understand and appreciate the impact of their advertising and only invest in tactics that work.

6. Local Businesses Are Increasingly Looking For One Point Of Contact

As Neil Salvage of CityGrid explained, local businesses today are so overwhelmed with just running their day-to-day operations that exploring the evolving world of local advertising is proving too difficult for many. Increasingly, local businesses are looking for one central point of contract to help advise and execute their integrated advertising strategy across print, online and mobile.

Salvage said that the local search industry has a significant opportunity to simplify the process for local businesses and offer a variety of solutions to attract new customers. He noted that local search providers are beginning to see their offerings as part of a single product since “the small business owner doesn’t care if his new customer comes from the phone book or the Internet.”

Going forward, I think local businesses want and will benefit most from integrated, one-stop solution approaches to their advertising. This will enable businesses to participate in meaningful interactions with trusted advisors who understand their specific industry and know which combination of advertising options will make them successful in attracting and retaining quality customers over the long-term. It will also prevent local businesses from being responsible for playing middle-man between several local advertising vendors and paying for redundant advertising solutions.

For full coverage of the inaugural Local Search Association annual conference, visit Local Search Insider.

Already, various players in the local search industry, including SuperMedia’s SuperPages, Yelp, DexOne’s DexKnows and Citysearch have either introduced or announced plans for mobile apps across all three major smartphone platforms. These companies are not just expanding local advertising portfolios, but fundamentally transforming the ways businesses generate leads.

SuperMedia, for example, recently integrated its popular SuperGuarantee program into its mobile apps, allowing consumers to sign up for the service, find qualified businesses, register service appointments, and file claims on the go.

While mobile local offerings will undoubtedly continue growing, the launch of Apple’s iPad and the impending introduction of new tablet devices ranging from Samsung’s Galaxy Tab (powered by Android) to Research in Motion’s Playbook, represent a new frontier for local lead generation. In 2011, we can expect major efforts by our industry to capitalize on this growing platform for several reasons.

First, the rate of adoption for iPad and tablet devices is off the charts. In just 80 days on the market, Apple sold 3 million iPads, but that’s nothing compared to the 3 million iPads the company plans to sell each month starting this quarter. And according to a June report by Forrester Research, tablets will account for 23% of all PCs sold to consumers in 2015—a remarkable prediction for a device class just making its debut. With so many consumers planning to purchase iPad and tablet devices and use them in their everyday lives, it will become imperative that Yellow Pages companies and other local search providers have a strong presence on this platform.

Second, the new local apps for the iPad and Android-powered tablets have been widely successful and demonstrate the value that consumers place for the interactive local business search tools we develop. At BIA/Kelsey’s DMS ’10 conference last month, Mike Wilson, GM and VP, Digital Media for Yellowbook, noted that his company’s app is the tenth-most popular in the iPad lifestyle category and the fifth-most popular overall free app for the Android. Wilson described how Yellowbook’s apps use the iPad and tablet’s multimedia features to deliver a unique user experience, allowing consumers to access basic business information, navigate locations on a map, view Facebook and Twitter feeds, read reviews, access websites and videos and even use Skype to call local businesses. The continued opportunities for innovation and integration, in addition to consumer preference for our search tools, will drive additional investment in this space.

Third, iPad and tablet devices merge the traditional online and mobile platforms into an unprecedented advertising delivery medium. Personal computers, laptops, and mobile phones all have unique functional limits that are overcome with the iPad and tablets. The iPad and tablets’ large touch-screens, combined with their mobile and geo-location features, give local businesses a blank slate to design creative and engaging new advertising methods. The opportunities appear endless.

Since the start of the year, I’ve watched first-hand as several Yellow Pages companies in the U.S. and Canada have expanded and retooled their offerings in order to help small businesses overcome these types of obstacles.

Major players including SuperMedia, DexOne Corp., The Berry Company, and Yellow Pages Group have recently announced new services, partnerships, and acquisitions that provide their small business clients with the means to combine the most recent digital marketing possibilities with traditional print and online options that they’ve used for years.

When I say digital offerings, I’m not just referring to Internet Yellow Pages, which millions of small businesses already know and use. I’m also talking about new vertical web sites including digital coupon sites, shopping comparison sites and user review sites that are among the latest drivers of local leads and are increasingly being added to the portfolios of various Yellow Pages companies.

As recent statistics show, these sites are among the most popular and trusted destinations for online shoppers and present exciting opportunities for local businesses:

Digital coupon sites: Digital coupons, which provide users with discounted promotion codes for online products, are quickly becoming a regular part of the online shopping experience. Coupons allow small businesses to generate new business and online buzz about their offerings.

They’re popular—ranked among the most-utilized tools for online shoppers, second only to major search engines, according to Compete.com’s Online Shopper Intelligence Study released last month, Approximately 35% of U.S. online users surveyed said they visited coupon sites when shopping online.

They’re also proven to generate sales. About 20% of U.S. online users—or nearly 45 million consumers— used digital coupons in 2009, an increase of 18.4% from 38 million users in 2008, according to research compiled by Coupons.com. In January, coupon traffic measured more than 14 million users and generated $34 million in online sales, a study by coupon aggregator RetailMeNot.com found.

Shopping comparison sites: Shopping comparison sites allow users to browse a range of products sold by participating retailers and compare prices, features, seller ratings and reviews, and other indicators. These sites provide a new platform for small businesses to gain visibility and compete directly with local and national retailers based on facts—not who, for example, can outbid the other in purchasing key search engine keywords.

Approximately 80 million U.S. consumers use shopping comparison sites, according to the Compete.com study. The survey also found that 22% of online users said they visit a shopping comparison site when purchasing products online.

User review sites: User-generated review sites provide the first-hand experiences of past customers who have purchased services or products from local businesses. These sites, which including ratings and other features, allow small businesses to let their clients promote their offerings for them by sharing positive stories and recommending that others patronize their services

User review sites are well-trusted by consumers. In fact, consumer opinions posted online are among the most trusted forms of advertising, bested only by recommendations from people known, according to the Nielsen Global Online Consumer Survey released in July 2009. Businesses gain credibility and can generate new business leads by supporting their presence on user review sites.

As these online destinations continue to grow, small businesses will be looking for advice on how best to promote their offerings. Our industry will need to live up to its important role of counseling local advertisers by providing details of how they can engage in this new digital marketplace.

Looking to next year, I’d like to share some predictions on market trends that will impact those small businesses looking to harness local search in order to play a part of our national economic recovery. If local search providers and advertisers keep these trends in mind, I think they will ultimately come out ahead in the local search race.

Prediction 1: Mobile will drive local search growth

BIA/Kelsey predicts that mobile local search ad revenues will grow to $130 million by 2013, and that mobile local searches will increase to 35 percent of all searches by 2013. Amid this growth, we’re seeing significant innovation on the mobile front, from new Yellow Pages iPhone apps to mapping technologies that deliver relevant local information to users on the go.

In 2010, advertisers will be faced with a growing set of options, and many will have limited knowledge of how to break through. The providers that will do well will be the ones who can make sense of this quickly changing platform and deliver programs that offer quality sales leads to advertisers.

Prediction 2: Local search providers will vie for social

The truth is that no one owns social local search yet, but all the major players have an eye on getting there. Here’s why: Neilsen reported that ad spending at top social media sites increased 119 percent over the last year, and the share of social media ad spending to total online spending doubled to 15 percent in 2009.

Advertisers know that significant trust exists within online social communities and that social networks have become a crucial way in which we relate with others. The question in 2010 will center on how we can authentically tap into those networks to serve local business information to consumers looking for it.

AT&T has said it will launch its answer to this question in 2010, and SuperPages has a Twitter search tool available right now. Praized Media launched Calgary.com this fall as a beta program and is hoping to expand it additional regions. I can only imagine where we’ll be a year from now.

Prediction 3: Local print advertising will decline but won’t disappear

Many have predicted the death of print media for quite some time. I don’t believe that print media will disappear anytime soon, but certainly usage is changing. Media fragmentation is causing a gradual decline in the quantity of print Yellow Pages references, for example, although the quality of those references is still very high. Quite frankly, the perception of the usage decline in the printed Yellow Pages far exceeds the reality of what is actually happening.

For advertisers, this means taking a close look at advertising spend and evaluating their print investment. Those who are too quick to abandon it may see a reduction in qualified sales leads, while those who aren’t open to some of the newer platforms available might be missing a big opportunity.

Prediction 4: A hybrid marketing approach will win

My colleagues spent a good part of this year talking about the hybrid model that they’ve deployed in their sales teams. Yellow Pages sales representatives, for example, are now armed with portfolios of options ranging from owned products to partner products. And in this way, have essentially become advertising consultants to small businesses.

Advertisers should think about taking advantage of these kinds of information resources by devoting an hour or two to thinking through the options out there and devising a strategy that spans the appropriate media for the business. It’s more important than ever to consider a hybrid approach because today’s consumers get information for a multitude of places before making a purchasing situation. And that fragmentation will only continue to grow as we head into 2010.

The author who helped make the phrase “tipping point” a common catchphrase, New York Times best-selling author Malcolm Gladwell, will speak at next month’s Yellow Pages Association Conference, and I’ve spent time lately brushing up on his books.

His unique insights on social sciences can be applied to any number of areas, but I obviously think about them in terms of their application to the local search industry. Each of Gladwell’s three books has a takeaway lesson for those of us in search.

The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference

Gladwell’s first book looks at understanding trends and how they can grow into social epidemics. Every influential trend has three keys: the Law of the Few, the Stickiness Factor, and the Power of Context. The Law of the Few states that a few key players in unique positions must champion the trend. Stickiness is what leads people to pay attention to something and remember it, and context is the environment in which the idea is launched and spread.

Certainly, his thoughts on this point can help us better understand the hows and whys behind the explosion of social media sites and tools such as Facebook and Twitter. It also can provide a means to measure future innovations and their potential to become widely used game-changers in our industry. For example, look at the multitude of mobile search services seeking to position themselves as the go-to source for on-the-go answers. Will any have that sticky factor to help it break away from the pack?

Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking

This book analyzes how people make everyday, split-second decisions. In an age when it’s easy to suffer from paralysis by analysis or information overload, Gladwell argues that it’s important to focus on the most significant information to help make what are often unconscious or intuitive choices. The key to making these snap judgments—blinking—is the ability to “thin-slice,” taking limited information and using that to reach a conclusion.

In many ways, “thin-slicing” occurs every time users receive their initial search results. What leads them to pick one option over another? As local search experts, we know the key is for advertisers to make their content relevant to the potential customer.

Outliers: The Story of Success

Gladwell’s latest book looks at highly successful people and the factors that breed their extraordinary success. In the nature vs. nurture debate, hel clearly comes down on the nurture side, arguing that outside factors tend to trump innate ability. One thing Gladwell emphasized is the 10,000-hour rule—that the key to success in nearly anything is practicing that task for 10,000 hours, the equivalent of 20 hours a week for a period of 10 years.

A few words pop to mind to describe those who meet that rule: dedication, hard work, tenacity. Who is positioned to be the next search industry success story? I’m sure Gladwell would argue it could be anyone, as long as that person or group of people has put in the time. Given the Yellow Pages’ 130-year history in search and two decades in online search, I like our chances to remain among the leaders.

Gladwell will speak at the 2009 Yellow Pages Association Conference and Exhibition, which will be held April 26-28 at the Sheraton San Diego Hotel and Marina.

The one thing that’s certain about 2009 is that it’s loaded with uncertainty. For local search providers, radical changes in the global marketplace present a whole new wave of issues, compounding the challenges already impacting a sector in transition. But, as the old saying goes: from change comes opportunity.

The Yellow Pages sector, perhaps more than any other local search player, is keenly aware of the enormous hurdles presented by changing global economic and social dynamics. Search is fragmenting, consumer habits are changing, and the platforms through which Yellow Pages publishers interact with advertisers and consumers are rapidly evolving. And everyone is touting themselves as a local search expert.

The Yellow Pages industry has great opportunity to win. We have core strengths and fundamental values that will continue to be relevant in this new environment including deep roots in the local marketplace, an expansive reach with advertisers and consumers, and 125+ years of insight into the psyche of local search.

I say opportunity to win, because despite these assets, success will not happen easily. In these times, every business in every industry will have to innovate to survive. Without exception. Here is a roadmap to leveraging our assets for new opportunities:

Be transparent about measurement

In business, results matter, and companies need to be able to demonstrate those results. Over the past 10 years, Yellow Pages publishers have invested more than $150 million in metered advertising testing to provide that hard data. This work enhances advertisers’ ROI and demonstrates the true value of our medium. In the days ahead be transparent about the importance of measurement by encouraging advertisers to keep an eye on your product and, ultimately, on their results.

Build and mine relationships with local businesses

More than three million local and national businesses relied on Yellow Pages last year. The challenge is to expand and increase those existing relationships. As segmentation and micro marketing techniques continue to evolve, deep relationships with local businesses and consumers will become a goldmine for years to come.

Find new ways of packaging and licensing data

Nothing delivers ready-to-buy customers like the Yellow Pages. We have information that people seek when they’re prepared to make a purchase. An area for growth is in the ability to harness the demand for user-generated, personalized content. For companies across the board, whether you are developing your own technologies, or building new alliances – offering data in more places at more times in more ways is the only way to stay on top of the market. Interactive features such as personalized maps and customer ratings and comments are some of the possible user-experience add-ons.

Let consumers voice their choice

Over the years, the Yellow Pages has grown its presence through a focus on accessibility – first at every doorstep, then by migrating online. Our focus has been on making sure content is delivered in ways it will reach users’ fingertips. Moving forward, the opportunity will be in giving consumers options: letting them choose whether they receive print directories, which ones, and how many.

Offer a new dimension to attract new buyers

Internet Yellow Pages have positioned us for the future with the ability to truly interact with consumers. As YouTube has shown, online video and audio are having greater influence on consumers. Video advertising and voice recognition-based search engines are rivaling traditional services. Appeal to the senses, and you will soon find yourself appealing to the masses.

Today’s environment provides plenty of challenges, from emerging technologies to budding competitors. The Yellow Pages Association feels its members are well-positioned in the search market, and we think it’s a good industry to be in. The need to search for goods and services at the local level is never going to disappear. Those who focus on their strengths and leverage them with an eye on new prospects will find the glass half full in 2009.

Keeping a strong pulse on the local business marketplace, the Yellow Pages industry’s feet-on-the-street sales teams talk with small businesses everyday. They hear their concerns about a variety of increasing operating costs and customers’ shrinking amount of disposable income. Buff Walker, south region vice president, R.H. Donnelley, also points out that some businesses have decided to only advertise in their immediate areas. They express concern about including surrounding areas because they cannot compete with “the locals” due to expensive fuel costs.

There is also an issue of service-based versus product-based businesses. For example, in the home improvement industry, some consumers are trying to tackle projects on their own rather than hiring a contractor, or they are simply putting off projects longer than before unless they are emergencies. And, local product-based businesses are facing pricing wars with nationwide chains, competing for consumers’ smaller pocketbooks. Vincent Lombardo, vice president of sales for Ambassador Yellow Pages, said, “We’ve noticed that the value of a job may be higher for some service-related businesses—the contractor who puts up fencing may currently generate higher-priced business than the company that sells the fencing materials.”

Despite these types of challenges, small businesses are still making savvy decisions with their budgets—-even though they may have less money to spend. Many of them are cutting out some advertising, but they recognize the need to stay with the types of media that continue to produce leads and diversify with both print and online ads. Walker reports that, “The Yellow Pages is typically the last cut made,” and notes that current Internet Yellow Pages areas of interest include hyperlink compatibility, ratings and reviews, tracking capabilities, and the ability to change company information easily. Another observation is that the volume of Yellow Pages leads continues to be high. Once these qualified leads are delivered to the business, it is up to the advertisers to seal the deal.

Choosing to stay the course with regard to advertising can be difficult, especially with widespread media reporting and speculating on the economic woes of the nation. However, advertising in media with proven and measurable ROI, such as the print and online Yellow Pages, eliminates the “How do I know this is working?” question and allows businesses to track where their leads are actually coming from. Lombardo adds, “Smart business owners are continuing to advertise-—they see it as an investment to capture the dollars that are waiting to be spent rather than as a questionable operating expense.”

One sure thing is that Yahoo is in play, and I don’t see the merry-go-round stopping until they link up with a solid partner. At the end of the day, it’s doubtful that Yahoo will be an independent player in 2009, and my bets are on Micro-hoo. While there are obvious challenges to a Microsoft-Yahoo deal, including cultural, technological, and timing issues, Microsoft has the cash and the most vested interest in seeking a partner to increase their search scale and make inroads in the fight to give Google a real challenger.

No matter who wins the Yahoo prize, however, success in local search will continue to be driven by three key elements: content, traffic, and technology.

Search engine consolidation could certainly create gaps in the market as the companies involved are likely to take their eyes off the local search ball while dealing with integration issues. This would create an Internet Yellow Pages (IYP) market opportunity to continue to capitalize on their strength—content gathered from large feet-on-the-street sales forces, proprietary databases of local business information, and long standing relationships with millions of small businesses. Search engine players still have not cracked the code on these select IYP strengths.

While the latest data indicates that IYPs are gaining in their share of local commercial searches, traffic remains a challenge in comparison to search engines. Each IYP is tackling it by increasing the destination appeal of its site with new and improved content and tools—user reviews, maps, comparison shopping, video content, and more.

One area IYPs will likely be affected by search engine consolidation is distribution deals, in which IYP advertisers’ listings and content are placed on AOL, Google, MSN, and/or Microsoft and other search engines. For example, Superpages.com has relationships with Google, MSN, and Yahoo. YellowPages.com has relationships with Yahoo and AOL, and R.H. Donnelley, owner of DexKnows.com, has relationships with both Yahoo and Google. How will these deals be affected by consolidation? Presumably, the contracts will be renegotiated as many of the deals are based on traffic and the ultimate goal for a consolidated search player such as Microsoft and Yahoo is increased traffic.

For local online advertisers there are both pros and cons to search engine consolidation. The downside is potentially higher prices, but on the flip side, there is the prospect of increased traffic. Fewer options and less fragmentation typically results in higher pricing for more eyeballs. It could also mean a local search campaign that is easier to administer.

Today’s small, local businesses, which provide the greatest untapped opportunity for all local search players, are still challenged with their online media buys. Yellow Pages publishers have taken on the role of trusted media consultant to help small businesses navigate the fragmented online media landscape by delivering a large volume of high quality local business leads through a variety of media—print and Internet Yellow Pages and search engine marketing—through the convenience of one organization.

It is hard to say who will be the ultimate winners in the overall local search market, but the bottom line is that Yahoo’s days as an independent are likely numbered. IYPs have an opportunity to capitalize on market consolidation by leveraging their strong local content and business databases, long-standing relationships with small businesses, and technology resources to deliver the most relevant local search results.

Neg Norton leads the Yellow Pages Association (YPA), its member publishers, national marketing agencies (“CMRs”) and supplier organizations to promote, grow and advocate on behalf of a print and electronic Yellow Pages industry. The Yellow Pages Association manages the Local Search Guide, a who’s who of Local Search players and perspectives. The Locals Only column appears on Mondays at Search Engine Land.