AskCity’s Top Lookups Differ From YPA’s

The difference in lookups between print Yellow Pages and Internet Yellow Pages and local search continues to be a big one. It is also a major reason why the channels haven’t converged as much as conventional wisdom would dictate.

Just this week, Ask released the Top 10 food, music and business search lookups for its revised AskCity service. Here’s how AskCity’s Business Search compares with the Yellow Pages Association’s Top 300 categories:

1. Massage (#148)
2. Shopping mall (NA)
3. Hospitals (#9)
4. Family doctor (#2)
5. Churches (#22)
6. Plumber (#10)
7. Florist (#16)
8. Police department (NA)
9. General practice attorneys (#6)
10. Auto repair (#4)

The lookups are biased by the holiday season, Ask’s hybrid entertainment/city guide and Yellow Pages format, and also by tire kickers, like me, who are trying out favorite categories for the new service. Traditionally, online search has also been more heavily oriented toward mobile on-the-go and emergency-type categories. Still, it is an interesting comparison. Thanks to Matt McGee for pointing out Ask’s blog to me.