Mapquest arguably "owns" the mapping brand online. It has been the dominant mapping site for years by a wide margin. But that dominance may now be slipping under pressure from Google. Hitwise reports that "traffic to Mapquest has remained flat year on year and is down 20% in the past 6 months. Google Maps traffic is up 135% year on year and is up 7% in the past 6 months." According to Hitwise, after Mapquest, Google is the number two mapping site, followed by Yahoo and then Microsoft's Live Local. Hitwise's Heather Hopkins argues that the traffic trend is based almost exclusively on Goog [...]

Related Topics: AOL: MapQuest | Channel: SEO | Google: Business Issues | Google: Critics | Google: Maps & Local | Google: OneBox, Plus Box & Direct Answers | Google: Universal Search | Microsoft: Bing Maps & Local | Stats: Size | Yahoo: Maps & Local

Yahoo Maps added drag and drop customizable routing, among several other improvements to the site. There's more discussion and explanation on the Yahoo Local & Maps blog. Google has a similar feature. Below are some screenshots of the new capability on Yahoo. Additional feature upgrades on Yahoo Maps include photos and reviews in Ajax pop-ups that appear when you mouse over individual business pushpins on the map. Yahoo directions from San Francisco to Yahoo HQ in Sunnyvale, CA: And now the customized route, where you've dragged the original route off the 101 freeway and over to the 880: [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Local | Yahoo: Maps & Local

When Yahoo Local redesigned in August of this year, it largely eliminated the left column of detailed filters and refinement capabilities that were one of its best features, in my view. The statement from then Yahoo Local GM Jennifer Dulski (now CEO of Fatdoor) was that people weren't really using them. What Yahoo did was largely to bury a scaled-down version of its set of filters in a search-assist like drop down menu. Now the company has reintroduced more detailed filters in the form of a "narrow your search" horizontal menu that appears below sponsored results. That's just one of several n [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Local | Yahoo: Maps & Local

Yahoo has always been an innovator in local, and today the company is rolling out (only in two California markets) a new feature that allows community members to identify, discuss, and potentially organize around local issues of concern. Called "Neighbors," it combines functionality found on Yahoo's suggestion boards and in Yahoo Answers. It came out of Yahoo Hack Day, and the company has decided to introduce it on a limited basis to test community reaction. It's a completely non-commercial offering and is intended to allow people to make suggestions for how to improve local communities, vot [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Local | Yahoo: Maps & Local

Andy Baio has posted on his blog that he is leaving Yahoo and Upcoming, the social events site he started in roughly 2003. The co-founder of Upcoming says many friendly and favorable things about Yahoo and says that he's taking some time off and next year will be "focusing exclusively on Waxy.org and related coding projects." Yahoo acquired Upcoming in 2005 for an undisclosed sum and has subsequently integrated it into Yahoo Local (see events). Jennifer Dulski, who took over Yahoo Local from Paul Levine when he went to AdBrite, is also leaving Yahoo to run an undisclosed startup. [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Local | Yahoo: Employees | Yahoo: Maps & Local

A report from today's opening panel at SMX Local & Mobile, Denver, Colorado. Huge market, huge confusion, huge challenges—that could summarize discussion on the Meet the Local Search Engines panel, consisting of some of the major players in local search—including major search engines' local search properties, an exclusively local search engine, the largest Internet Yellow Pages (IYP), and a search marketer in the local space. Session moderator, Greg Sterling, Founding Principal of Sterling Market Intelligence, started off the dialogue with his one word summary on why lo [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Local | Google: Maps & Local | Local Search | Search Engines: Maps & Local Search Engines | Yahoo: Maps & Local

After exploring Yahoo's Mapspam, I started investigating Yahoo's end user local reporting features more fully. I may have underestimated Yahoo's features to deal with spam (and to abet it). The new Yahoo Local is making a strong attempt at encouraging user input and content about local businesses with reviews, soliciting and actually reading end user suggestions for improvements and even allowing users to add business level details to specific records. This article is part of Local Search Week here at Search Engine Land, a special look at local search marketing issues in the run-up to our S [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Local Search Week | SEO: Local | SEO: Spamming | Yahoo: Maps & Local

If spam isn't an indication of the arrival of an advertising medium (e.g. email spam, search spam) I don't know what is. Mike Blumenthal, who identified instances of Google mapspam has now investigated non-local businesses trying to fool the local algorithms on Yahoo into thinking they are local. Blumenthal cites detailed examples of gaming with fake addresses, phone numbers and, in some cases, fake reviews to boost rankings, which give these businesses prominence not only in Yahoo Local but also in general Yahoo search results. [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | SEO: Local | SEO: Spamming | Yahoo: Maps & Local

Google CEO Eric Schmidt said at one point that one of the reasons Google wanted to get into radio advertising was that the company couldn't reach users during the morning or afternoon commutes. That's all changing very quickly. Both Google and Yahoo have almost simultaneously announced in-car mapping and local search functionality. As an extension of its earlier "Send to Car" Maps partnership with BMW, Google has introduced in-car local search for BMWs in Germany. Here's a video that partly illustrates the functionality. Google has also expanded the Send to Car Maps functionality to Italy [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Mobile | Google: Cars | Google: Maps & Local | Google: Mobile | Google: Outside US | Google: Partnerships | Search Features: Cars | Search Features: Send To Phone | Yahoo: Cars | Yahoo: Maps & Local | Yahoo: Outside US | Yahoo: Partnerships

FlashEarth Mashup with Google Earth 4.2 from the Google Earth Blog reports on a site named Flash Earth that provides mapping services from several providers in a desktop like experience, using Flash technologies. Flash Earth gives you mapping data from Google Earth, Microsoft Virtual Earth, Yahoo Maps, OpenLayers and NASA Terra. The Flash map lets you select one of those maps and then you can click or drag the map to the location you want. You can also use arrow keys or the compass control to move the map to your desired location. You can rotate the map by turning your compass wheel with [...]

Related Topics: Ask: Maps | Channel: Local | Google: Earth | Microsoft: Bing Maps & Local | Search Engines: Maps & Local Search Engines | Yahoo: Maps & Local

Yahoo is arguably the leader in local search, but others including Google, Microsoft and Yelp have been rapidly gaining. The search engine's venerable Local site was in need of a refresh, which it has now received. With a redesign partly inspired by the Yahoo OurCity sites in India, the new Yahoo Local features a bolder graphical look that pushes community content even more front and center. Maps are still featured, but not as a central metaphor or visual element and much more in a functional way. There’s also better and broader integration of other Yahoo content and properties into Loca [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Local | Yahoo: Maps & Local

Paul Levine, GM of Yahoo Local, is leaving (his decision) after almost five years and being replaced by Jennifer Dulski, who is now going to be Group Vice President & General Manager, Marketplace. Her title reflects a strategy shift and will combine Local with Shopping, Travel, Autos and Real Estate and represents a more integrated local-vertical approach. Dulski has a long history at Yahoo! in various roles. Prior to her current role, Dulski was the VP/GM of the Autos business. According to Yahoo, Dulski "was a key member of the tiger team that re-launched Yahoo! Search and she led the cons [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Local | Yahoo: Employees | Yahoo: Maps & Local

The conference Where 2.0 begins tomorrow in San Jose, California. It's about mapping, mashups and location-based services and there should be a range of interesting announcements from companies large and small. To that end, Garrett Rogers speculates, based on domain name registrations, that Google will be announcing a "street view" mapping capability at the show. Here's more background on a related startup (Vutool), which Google allegedly acquired to offer this functionality (or some version of it). Microsoft has experimented with street-level photography and has had "Street Side" (in Seattl [...]

Related Topics: AOL: MapQuest | Channel: Local | Google: Maps & Local | Microsoft: Bing Maps & Local | Search Engines: Maps & Local Search Engines | Yahoo: Maps & Local

Although Microsoft might disagree, Yahoo was really the company that kicked off the dynamic mapping arms race back in March of 2004 with the introduction of a feature called "SmartView" ( a version of it still exists on Yahoo Maps "dial-up" presentation). SmartView enabled users of Yahoo Maps to conduct map-based searches using category buttons tied to travel, restaurants and entertainment. It included a similar capacity to search for local service businesses. All results were plotted on the map. It also offered contextually relevant geo-targeted ads around the map. Compared to what exists [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Local | Search Engines: Maps & Local Search Engines | Yahoo: Maps & Local

Yahoo Travel has redesigned and added a range of features, including personalization and new mapping tools to the site. It's also seeking to more deeply integrate travel properties FareChase (its fares and rates "meta search" engine) and Trip Planner (its user-generated content site) into Travel. Flickr is also well represented throughout the redesign. I'm not going to be able to capture every nuance or aspect of the upgrade and all the new features, but I'll highlight the main ones. The new home page displays personalized recommendations, as well as more "social features" from Trip Planner. [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Local | Search Engines: Personalized Search Engines | Search Engines: Travel Search Engines | Search Features: Tagging | Yahoo: Flickr | Yahoo: Maps & Local

Events are an important but historically neglected area of local search, previously the almost exclusive province of newspapers and printed weeklies. Now there are a range of startups and more established sites providing local events information. They include Socializr, Attendio, Eventful, Zvents, Citysearch, AOL Cityguide, Heyletsgo, Jambase, the various ticket sites and Yahoo's Upcoming, among others. And this doesn't include all the online newspaper calendars and entertainment guides. When Yahoo bought "social events calendar" Upcoming.org more than a year ago, the site was basically thre [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Local | Yahoo: Maps & Local

Google goes back to pre-Katrina maps from USA Today reports that Google Maps has changed their satellite imagery of New Orleans to show pre-Katrina images, getting some local residents angry and wondering if there's some type of cover-up in the works. However, it's unclear if these are pre-Katrina images or not -- and the situation's just as confusing with mapping services from other search engines. USA Today writes: Google's popular map portal has replaced post-Hurricane Katrina satellite imagery with pictures taken before the storm, leaving locals feeling like they're in a time loop and e [...]

Related Topics: Ask: Maps | Channel: Local | Google: Maps & Local | Microsoft: Bing Maps & Local | Search Engines: Maps & Local Search Engines | Yahoo: Maps & Local

Google Maps has caught up with Yahoo and Microsoft in adding live traffic reporting for the United States to their online mapping service. Google Operating System spotted the change today (and Google now has the official word up here). To see the traffic yourself, just go to Google Maps and click on the new "Traffic" button that you'll see in the upper right-hand corner of the map page, right before the "Map" and "Satellite" and "Hybrid" buttons. Pushing that button will make traffic light icons show up, like this: Everywhere you see an icon, that [...]

Related Topics: Ask: Maps | Channel: Local | Google: Maps & Local | Microsoft: Bing Maps & Local | Search Engines: Maps & Local Search Engines | Yahoo: Maps & Local

Part two of Yahoo Local Advertising Options, Post-Panama at ClickZ has some excellent tips on local search marketing since the Panama release. Some of the tips include search ad recommendations, local listing advice, migration advice to Panama's new geotargeted solution, and more. Patricia Hursh, the author of the article, explains there is a lot of opportunity in local ads, since "search engines certainly haven't cracked the small business marketing code yet." [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Search Marketing: Local Search Marketing | Yahoo: Maps & Local | Yahoo: Search Ads

The 3GSM World Congress is happening this week, so expect a variety of mobile announcements. Here's a rundown on some that have caught my eye: Microsoft Debuts 3 Windows Live Mobile Services from eWeek covers how Microsoft is taking its Windows Live Search For Mobile service out of beta today. (Note: now officially announced here). Let's hope they make it easier to find the app, as I covered in my Ironically, You Need A Map To Find Google & Microsoft's Windows Mobile Map Apps article.   Yahoo ads going mobile from CNN Money covers how Yahoo has signed major advertisers to run mo [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Google: Maps & Local | Google: Partnerships | Microsoft: Bing Mobile | Search Ads: Mobile Search | Yahoo: Maps & Local | Yahoo: Mobile & Go | Yahoo: Search Ads