The Changing Landscape of Local Search

Imagine yourself magically transformed into a citizen of a small rural town in America, leisurely strolling through the village green, hub of the town's ordered domain. You gaze fondly at the weathered, tarnished obelisk rising from the village green. From the corner of your eye, you peer discreetly at the customers in Sam's Barbershop. Across the street, just as he has been for 14 years, Bob the town Baker is faithfully making tasty dainties for the local folks. Just 2 blocks down on the right is the trusty old hardware store, where you can now purchase everything from brackets to dead bolts, to any color of house paint you fancy. Main street is lined with tall elm trees; signs hanging from the facade of every shop, and inside every one of the brick and mortar stores, Mom and Pop, are hard at work from dawn to dusk providing needed business services for the townspeople. You can find everything you need on Main Street,

The dream of the originators of Google Local was to create an online shopping experience similar to Main Street, America. And thanks to colossal ingenuity of modern computers, it became possible for the search engines, and classified directories to provide web surfers, on request, an immediate list of stores and businesses providing the sought after product or service within the seeker's purlieu

This idyllic solution to Internet shopping was soon shattered, however, because the World Wide Web can only provide the illusion of shopping in a small town, and Google and other online Directories had to face problems posed by businesses vying for a share of the market. Why should a superior plumbing company, located in suburbia, be listed, on the search results, underneath the town plumber, when their plumbing company truck can be at the customer's house in 10 minutes. Why shouldn't a high quality Italian restaurant, located in the next district, be ranked above a take-out pizza joint when online users, willing to travel a few miles, are searching for gourmet Italian food?

Challenged by problems like these, the brilliant technicians at Google and other search engines added more factors into their "local search equations," which distorted and compressed the spatial and temporal realities of small town life. Factors, such as stability and reputation of the providing company, were added into the local search equation, and the imaginary small town became further distorted as closeness became defined in terms of the subjective needs of the consumer.

Big multi-city concerns began pounding the small town model. Companies, offering mortgages, loans, insurance, and national companies with local affiliates such as locksmiths, real estate agents and movers, began to fill up the local lists. The local search results, originally designed to inform shoppers of the nearest provider in their geographical neighborhood, were now filling with distant businesses submitted by entrepreneurs using tricks to get their clients top listing.

As the owner and Director of Express Submit, www.wexpresssubmit.biz , a company dedicated to rapid and effective Local List Submission, I won't deny that I fight hard to get each of my customers a top listing on the search engines. However, I can honestly say that my company has an ethic. Before I take on a job, I question each of my potential customers, to make sure they can provide their service in a timely fashion. If they live at a distance from the area they're serving, I want to make sure that their customers will not be penalized by travel costs. If my listing service will empower my clients to rank above other companies on the local list, I want to be sure, they will be providing an equivalent or superior service. I am happiest when I help a client with a quality product to get more customers.

The search engines have adjusted and in some cases facilitated the evolving character of Local Search, and at times, have bucked. But quaint as the idea may seem, how can anyone believe that our post-relativistic, futuristic world, can entirely be reduced to Main Street in a dawdling, Arcadian small American town.