Lee Odden wrote an outstanding article summarizing the nuance of univresal search on Google, Yahoo!, Ask and Microsoft and he walks readers through several good tips on optimizing their digital assets (note that I didn’t just say website) to gain visibility.
Special thanks to Larry Sullivan for bringing my attention to the article. Larry has a great blog on local online marketing at LocalBizBits
In the opening keynote address at SMX Local, Michael T. Jones, Chief Technologist, Google Maps and Google Earth spoke openly (and surprisingly humbly) about challenges in providing great local search information.
Michael T. Jones and Dick Larkin
It was a refreshing change from the typical keynote address where the speaker brags about his company’s dominance and power.
Instead, Michael compared Google’s local search to a good hotel concierge in terms of solving problems, retrieving quality information and understanding the needs of a user.
For example, a good hotel concierge will recommend a restaurant based on the quality of shoes the guest is wearing. Local search has a long, long way to go in that aspect.
Using a computer is only one part of the equation. Voice search via cell phone, SMS text search and browsing within a location will make the interaction much more consumer friendly.
Michael showed a map zoom out from the Hyatt Tech Center in Denver to see local restaurants. He then went to show the exact landing place on the moon where Apollo astronaut Neil Armstrong left his “One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind” footprints.
I actually got chills looking at it and remembered being in first grade watching black and white television coverage of the moon landing.
Regarding business:
Using 1-800 GOOG 411 or sending a SMS text message to GOOGL is much more likely to result in a business transaction than someone browsing websites on their desk.
Regarding usefulness of data:
He showed the way the State of Ohio uses Google maps to show where traffic fatalities occur. Traffic data in this context is more relevant and easier to understand.
Regarding data gathering:
The real local experts are people who live in the area. Google’s geo Mission is to geographically organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.
A villager in India identifies a bakery and a water well that would be ignored by a traditional map maker. But this data is critical to someone walking in a country that has no street signs.
He left us with a Chinese proverb, “A frog in a well says the sky is as big as the mouth of my well.” Point being that our personal views are too limited. The vastness of information is beyond any person’s ability to comprehend.