We’ve just launched the beta version of a brand spanking new site – localguides.com.
We think the site (and the technology and methodologies behind it) begin to lay the foundation to tackle two vexing problems in local search – how to place consumer participation into the center of the experience and, how to connect search and commentary into useful real-life planning and sharing tools.
Here’s an overview… (more…)
At Local Matters, we’ve been working through ideation, consumer research, prototyping, and product planning for about 18 months in the area that has come to be referred to as “local social”. LocalGuides.com represents the cumulative effect of these activities, and the point of entry into a new stream of development and growth for our company.
The industry has witnessed a lot of interesting experimentation and success with user-generated content, building on the unstoppable live web experience. The increasingly engaged consumer has begun to shift their view of the Internet to a place where sharing and interaction become integral and common, and more and more expected every day. (more…)
Local Matters works in close partnership with traditional local media publishers, providing advanced technology to improve their online and mobile publishing products, and we provide a growing base of distribution through a suite of online media properties. (more…)
Another insightful post on Tim O’Reilly’s blog, entitled “What Would Google Do?” This one is not (yet another) article on the perils of “evil” that might come from pouring more power into their hungry vortex. It’s not really about Google, even.
Rather it is a challenge to apply the model we’re coming to know as Web 2.0 to a broader reinvention agenda - using traditional services (phones, banks, insurance…) as cases-in-point.