Steven makes a good point about the number of competitors in this space. There are numerous sites that allow users to compare service providers based on consumer reviews. But unlike Kudzu, Yelp, YellowPages.com, and other sites offering subjective comparisons, LocalPrice compares providers based on a wide range of objective criteria tailored to each service category. This enables consumers to weigh price against the attributes of the service that matter most, e.g. someone shopping for pest control service may be willing to pay a premium for providers that that cover a wide range of pests, offer Saturday service and have fully insured employees providing the service. This is unique to LocalPrice.

The question of whether this a ‘feature’ or a ‘business’ is probably only meaningful to a handful of product managers in the industry. What really matters is whether consumers find the information useful.

To Steven’s point about competitors copying our model, sure, this is possible over some period of time – probably longer than a day. Even so, would they? How will their advertisers with great reviews but high prices react? How happy are such advertisers going to be to choose between a) not listing their prices and loosing business to those that do and b) listing their prices and loosing business?

Lastly, Thanks for covering LocalPrice. Peter. Exposure you give to startups like us help spread ideas and furthers innovation in the industry.

Clever and useful. Still — sounds more like a feature than a site (let alone a business).

You can add every IYP to their list of competitors. Not to mention Kudzu.com. Atlanta’s their home market — and they could probably replicate this in an afternoon.