Local Matters, a company that provides a lot of behind-the-scenes technology and data for a number of local search services, has released a beta version of its own “social-local” site, LocalGuides.com. Local Matters CEO Perry Evans describes it like this:

“In a nutshell, LocalGuides.com is a new approach to creating a “social-local” experience in the Local Search domain. The site empowers consumers with the tools to create, annotate, expand and share lists of local businesses and places – publishing their own personal local guides (sort of a “lists 2.0” thing). We’re also (just beginning) to introduce new elements of local-vertical by providing “starter guides” that users can copy and personalize for common local shopping activities.”

Perry has more about the strategy, technology and methodology on his blog.

Related Topics: Search Engines: Maps & Local Search Engines

About The Author: Chris Sherman (@CJSherman) is Executive Editor of SearchEngineLand.com and President of Searchwise LLC, a Boulder Colorado based Web consulting firm. He also programs and co-chairs the Search Marketing Expo - SMX conference series. See more articles by Chris Sherman