Seat’s 3D Beta

Seat Pagine Gialle has recently announced a beta version of a three-dimensional online Yellow Pages directory, called Pagine Gialle Visual. You can check out the beta here. Here is the press release if you’re interested.

Conceptually, this is a powerful idea, though it also carries the risk of being a solution in search of a problem if every result end up being served visually.

The idea works for things you might want to see before you visit. Imagine being able to see the kind of neighborhood a restaurant is in before booking a table, or what the atmosphere is like at a hair salon you’ve never visited before making an appointment. Not that I’m into that sort of thing.

This particular execution is very much in beta stage, but it begins to show the potential for a visually rendered Yellow Pages directory. The French publisher PagesJaunes is working on something similar.

Paolo Cellini, director of the Internet division at Seat PG, will give a keynote address at The Kelsey Group’s DDC2006 event, which takes place Sept. 18-20 in Los Angeles.