New Local Engine Yellowspaces Debuts
May 6, 2009 at 10:51am ET by Greg Sterling
As a microcosm or mirror of the larger search market, there’s no shortage of entrepreneurs who keep taking a run at local. The newest entrant, launching today, is Yellowspaces. It joins an already very crowded field of consumer destinations that include the major search engines, yellow pages publishers, mapping sites, cityguides and others such as Local.com, Center’d and Yelp. It’s a tough and competitive market. It’s also quite fragmented, especially on the advertiser side, which keeps opportunity alive and keeps entrepreneurs coming.
Although there are some novel elements, Yellowspaces is generally unremarkable in terms of its interface and functionality. The differentiator according to founder Constantin S. Manta is the site’s algorithm and the relevance of its local results. According to the press release out this morning:
YellowSpaces is focused on providing the most relevant and meaningful searches with its YellowRank™ relevancy algorithm, the most comprehensive databases, and a host of state of the art features…
YellowSpaces works closely with Localeze, the largest online content manager that provides comprehensive listing profiles of more than 16 million local businesses to YellowSpaces’ search platform. In addition, YellowSpaces is one of the first local search companies to use the new Confidence Score from Localeze as part of its overall YellowRank relevancy algorithm.
There’s also a mobile site.
Share, Bookmark & Discuss This Article
More:
Keep Updated: News Via Email | News Via RSS Feed | News Via Twitter
See more stories like this in the Members Library! Check out the Search Engines: Maps & Local Search Engines sections of the Members Library where this story is filed. Members also get access to exclusive video content, a members-only weekly & monthly newsletter, plus more. Check out all the benefits!
4 COMMENTS ON New Local Engine Yellowspaces Debuts
TOP STORIES
SEARCH NEWS BRIEFS
FEATURES & ANALYSIS
RECENT COMMENTS
- Carrie Hill said " SupidScript, First let me apologize for misleading or misdirecting you. I continually find it a stru"
- Mike-in-Denver said " I thought that it was interesting that Google advertised it's search service rather than any of thei"
- Kelsey Childress said " @stupidscript: You are right. Texting behind the wheel is as dangerous as drunk driving and should n"
FREE DAILY SEARCH NEWS RECAP!
Stay on top of all the search news with our daily summary, the SearchCap newsletter. View a sample ›
STAY CURRENT THROUGHOUT THE DAY
Search Engine Land produces SMX, the Search Marketing Expo conference series. SMX events deliver the most comprehensive educational and networking experiences - whether you're just starting in search marketing or you're a seasoned expert.
SMX Web Site » | SMX Difference » | SMX News »
Join us at an upcoming SMX event:
- SMX West – March 2-4, 2010
- SMX Munich – March 23-24, 2010
- SMX Toronto – April 8-9, 2010
- SMX Sydney – April 22-23, 2010
- SMX Advanced London – May 17-18, 2010
- SMX Advanced Seattle – June 8-9, 2010
- SMX East – October 4-6, 2010
- SMX Stockholm – October, 2010
Learn more about search marketing with our free online webcasts and webinars from our sister site, Search Marketing Now. Upcoming online events include:
- PPC Content Networks and Placement Campaigns – February 9, 2010
- Need to Know SEO – February 11, 2010
- PPC & the Long Tail – February 18, 2010
- Hey! That’s My Conversion – February 25, 2010
TRACK US SOCIALLY
- Wall Street Journal Recommended Reading
- Ad Age Power 150 Blog
- Technorati Top 100 Blog
- Techmeme Leaderboard Source
- Best Search Engine Community/Forum
Featured sites from our Blogroll
- Yahoo! Publisher Network
- Webmaster Forum
- Advertising Age – Homepage
- Performancing.com – Helping Bloggers Succeed
- LiveSide – Windows Live news and interviews
Get Your Search Engine Land
Premium Membership!
Become a premium member today and receive:
- Express commenting privileges & photo.
- Exclusive videos & newsletters.
- Discounts to our SMX conferences.
- Access to "How To" & Other Archives.
© 2010 Third Door Media, Inc. All rights reserved. Google, Yahoo & Microsoft logos trademark respective companies and used with permission.
Premium member since 01/2009
Glad you posted on this Greg, hope you get a chance to see this comment since I think you’re the perfect guy to answer it.
What’s your thoughts when these local companies launch using phrases like “focused on providing the most relevant and meaningful searches” or “positioned to be #1 in local” or “targeting over a million users per month” when they’ve just barely launched?
It appears many local sites make grandiose claims (especially when contacting non web savvy business owners) and I wondered if you had any thoughts on that.
“YellowSpaces is focused on providing the most relevant and meaningful searches with its YellowRank™ relevancy algorithm…”
Searched for – Thai Restaurant in New York
First page results include Subway, and a few other restaurants that definitely won’t have Thai on the menu.
On a postive note, the Google ad on the right side of the page for “Single Thai Girls” was somewhat entertaining, although didn’t serve up the restaurant information I was hoping for :)
Premium member since 01/2009
That’s pretty much my point, I see local search directories toot their horns on how they deliver best results yet when I land on pages I frequently find incorrect, off topic, or no listing for info I was actually seeking. At least, as an industry, they are consistent.
Here’s the search mentioned:
http://www.yellowspaces.com/#a=search|p_what=thai%20restaurant|p_pageSize=10|p_where=New%20York%20(NY)|p_whereid=329488|p_latitude=40.7143|p_longitude=-74.006
First four hits are Thai and then there are non-thai alternates that are restaurants.
I think what the problem here is that this is a local search and there is a knee jerk reaction that it is supposed to be a literal search.
Once we look at the concept here of being local, I think that if I’m hungry I may look for Thai restaurants because that’s my literal desire, but I might be more interested in a sub that is a few blocks from my search location than in a restaurant that is my literal request but is 5 miles away. So if an engine tries to give me what I want that is close, but if a sub is a lot closer and it still offers that to me as an alternative because it’s close… that’s pretty good at solving the problem (me being hungry lol).
It’s not Google’s way but what is the point of replicating Google over and over again?