We're seeing no shortage of commentary throughout the blogosphere on the University of Michigan's American Customer Satisfaction Index, which shows Yahoo! beating out Google in overall customer satisfaction for its online network of products. But another notable data point many…
Coupon giant Valpak has overhauled its Web site using Ajax and other features to make its online coupons download faster and searchable by distance, maps and category. The overhaul is the 15-person division’s sixth since 1998. Valpak, "the blue envelope…
John L. Scott, a leading broker in the Pacific Northwest, has carved out a niche for itself as a major implementator of technology, even as it sticks to a full-service model. Speaking at Inman’s Real Estate Connect last week, Chairman…
If you are looking for a great read, pick up “The Ghost Map" from Outside.in cofounder Steven Johnson. The book, published in November, poignantly tells the story of how an amateur scientist and a clergyman use their knowledge of a local…
The Kelsey Group and AMR International joined forces to hold a summit in London on the Future of Local Search in Europe. It was an invitation-only affair, which is why you probably didn’t hear about it. Not surprisingly, most of…
They're cool, but unless you want to torture yourself, you’ll probably want to use a 3D Virtual Cityscape for less than 15 percent of your local lookups. Watching the innovation in the space, however, is thrilling. The applications are already…
Summary Google has shown a clear interest in beefing up the content that is available to users in Google Local and Google Maps. A few months ago, it announced new features to its Local Business Center to allow businesses to…
Comcast this week announced that it will open up its own island within the virtual world of Second Life. Second Life is increasingly becoming a marketing venue for companies that wish to reach the young and tech-savvy set that play…
Summary After completing a free DA call this week using Google's newly launched 800-GOOG411, we were asked if a text message was desired in addition to the free voice and "connect me" features (the multimodal functionality that is standard in…
Here at O’Reilly’s Where 2.0 conference in San Jose, an annual event for 800+ mashup developers, there’s no perspective yet on the importance of maps to the local ecosphere. But a picture is developing of a “3D Data arms race,”…
Amidst all the whiz bang mapping apps showed off at Where 2.0, MapQuest Gm James Greiner brought everything back to Earth with a survey showing that just 42 percent of Internet users use mapping sites, and relatively light penetration of…
Microsoft announced this morning from the Where 2.0 conference that it will add New York City to the list of cities available in 3-D in Live Local Maps. We wrote about 3-D mapping and its possibilities for Local in a…
Superpages.com is getting good reviews from the ad community for new directions it is taking with its redesign (clean), ad serving formats (based on relevancy, performance and bidding) and its overall effort to update itself for a Google-centric marketplace (where…
MapQuest today announced a partnership with GM's OnStar division that will allow online users to send maps and turn-by-turn spoken directions to their OnStar devices. This falls in line with the cross-platform personalization that we’re seeing a lot of in…
PagesJaunes has launched its anticipated 3-D mapping engine in Paris. The Praized Blog has the scoop. Our past coverage of 3-D mapping is here, here and here.
Google today launched MyMaps, something appropriately coined by Greg Sterling at Search Engine Land as "mashups for the masses." Google Maps, like most other mapping engines has long made its API available to third-party developers, best documented by the Google…
Following closely behind the social media trend in local search, Microsoft Live Search Maps launched a feature that will allow users to read and contribute ratings and reviews of local businesses. This is part of a new feature set it…
Map-centric directories from the likes of Google and Microsoft, enhanced with satellite and 3D imagery, are absolutely fascinating. They're also increasingly functional, with all kinds of searchable links. But is it really clear that they are the future of directories?…
ZDNet reports on two different mobile usage studies here and here. Both show usage and revenues growing dramatically over the next three to five years, with entertainment services (games, music, TV) having the steepest incline. Though search wasn't mentioned, increased…
Microsoft announced today that it is partnering with aerial and satellite image provider GlobeXplorer to enhance Virtual Earth with 400,000 square miles of U.S. high-resolution aerial imagery coverage. Virtual Earth is built on Microsoft's MapPoint Web service and is the…
