Let Your Fingers Do The Typing
Recently a report by ComScore was released that focused on the growth of Internet Yellow Page (IYP) searches. The study showed that 68 million U.S. Internet users searched through an IYP in July. This is up 46% from last year. Yahoo! Sites and Verizon SuperPages garnered the largest share, with 23.9 percent and 20.1 percent, respectively.
With local search all the buzz these days, this study does reveal that the Yellow Pages may not be extinct just yet. Well, maybe someday in print, but not online. However, I do have some issues with this study and with Yellowpages.com. For one, I cannot find the actual study. I have found a number of articles referencing it such as on Yahoo Finance (nice plug Yahoo!), but I can't find the Comscore report. Well, not for free at least. The second thing that bothers me is that everything is listed in percentages. So, okay searches are up by 46%, but how does that compare to the regular search engines?
You see, I have a theory without any evidence at all to back me up (this is not a blog entry for "Further Evidence that a Shift has Occurred"). I think there might be a direct correlation between this sudden increase in IYP searches and the fact that more and more of the older generation is becoming Internet savvy. To them, the Yellow Pages Book is a trusted source of information that is usually placed on the top of their refrigerator or inside a closet. You thumbed through the simple interface and looked up stores by categories. It’s pretty simple. But, why is it that you can't find the stores you are looking for online?
Yellow Pages being the originator of paid inclusion. You pay to have your ad listed within their publication. Great idea, but when you're trying to use it as a directory of every store or company that exists within your search query you tend to receive only a select few of stores that you were looking for. I remember years ago going to Yellowpages.com looking for local restaurants, auto part stores, book shops, mechanics, delicatessens, hair salons, florists, car dealers, jewelers, video stores, you name it. I searched for everything through this tool and was always disappointed. After a number of failed searches, I turned to Google. At least they give me an opportunity to find the information on my own. Hence the power of Google's search engine optimization and pay per click algorithms.
It would be nice to see the IYP's do a better job to include all stores within your local area. Yellowpages.com really fell short with executing this by charging more money to be in the book and online. It should have been included as a packaged deal. They could have created a different business model to attract dollars online. (Or, at least done a better job selling the space online.)
Hopefully, Yahoo has figured this out. I have not tested their local searching enough to give you my opinion.
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