Google Trounces Other Local Search Providers In UK — Study

Google has the most complete and accurate local search database in the UK, according to data and analytics firm Implied Intelligence. Previously we’ve published comparable US reports by the company:

• Yellow Pages Sites Beat Google In Local Data Accuracy Test
• Bing Ties Yellow Pages Sites For Most Accurate Local Data

In these earlier US tests, yellow pages sites (i.e., Superpages) and Bing beat Google for completeness and data quality. However in the UK Google comes out on top.

To conduct the test (performed in May) the firm created a sample of 1,400 local business records. Each of these local businesses had websites. Listings were “hand checked” and verified. All the records included a name, address, telephone number and additional attributes (e.g., hours of operation). The test only included independent local businesses; franchises or chain stores were excluded.

Implied Intelligence scored each of the directory and local sites on a scale of 1 (worst) to 5 (best) according to the following criteria:

• Record coverage
• Number of duplicates
• Phone errors
• Address errors
• Coverage re homepage URL
• Accuracy re homepage URL
• Number of records with opening hours
• Number of records with additional information

Google was the site that offered the highest percentage of matches with the Implied Intelligence database. However it only had 58.8 percent of the 1,400 listings. Next best in coverage were 192.com and then Hotfrog. Google, Yell/hibu and Bing had the best URL coverage. The directory with the highest percentage of incorrect phone numbers was The Phone Book from BT (a carrier). And the site that had more rich content (beyond reviews or check-ins) than any other was Yelp, followed by Hotfrog.

The following is the fina ranking of UK local search sites (overall averages) based on the Implied Intelligence criteria and analysis:

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