Small Business Commando News

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.

I recorded an interview with Bobby Kalili, CEO of TollFreeYellowPages.com who owns a couple of interesting pieces of intellectual property.

Last week, TFYP announced that they had received an investment of $32.5 million from a Saudi Prince. Given that the company is a pure start up, this is a bold and audacious punch into the already crowded toll free directory asistance business.

One twist is that they also own comparison shopping sites of BidSell.com and DiscountMore.com. Bobby imagines the day that the voice activated shopping engine will put TFYP in the sweet spot between actively shopping consumers and online merchants.

Also, they own two numbers 1-877-YELLOW PAGES and 1-866-YELLOWPAGES as well as the trademark to “Toll Free Yellow Pages” which could be valuable to AT&T as they begin marketing their 1-800-YELLOW PAGES service.

Telephone services is a very tough business with many deep pocketed competitors (ever hear of Google?).

Nonetheless, raising this amount gives TFYP some oxygen to develop their niche.

Spend the money wisely, Bobby.

 Toll Free Yellow Pages Interview: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Ever wonder how Google decides  which sites get top billing across their various properties?

Yeah, me too.

This post on Small Business SEM does an excellent job of identifying several possible components tha affect positioning.

It’s mostly conjecture based upon observation, but I found it to be very helpful in clarifying my own thinking about local search engine optimization.

I should point out that relying on pure organic traffic from any search engine is a dangerous strategy, because a few minor tweaks in the rules can bump your from the top spot to the not spot.

read the article

It’s heating up down under with Google and Sensis locked in an all out battle to control local search dominance in Australia.

My bet is on the team with the local sales channel, and that would be Sensis.

See, it comes down to human nature. Small businesses that advertise in the Yellow Pages do not BUY advertising. They are SOLD advertising, and there is a big difference.

Until Google has a way to reach the local advertisers and to sell them on the concept of local online advertising, the game will go to the sales team.

Here’s the deal.

As long as the Sensis product is good enough (and I understand that it is quite good), a better mousetrap won’t change the outcome.

You don’t need a better mousetrap if the first trap killed the mouse.

A consumer poll of the most influential brands in the world revealed that advertising is no longer the most important tool of branding.

It shocked me that several of the “Most Influential” brands did not advertise:

• YouTube
• Google
• Starbucks
• Wikipedia
• Craigslist

None of these “brands” advertise in the traditional sense.

So I looked to see if this was a new trend. Y’know, had the old guard recently lost it?

Well, this survey is a little odd, because look at the results from 2001:

Yup, the world HAS changed.  The old rules no longer apply, and a great idea, well implemented can create a top brand nearly overnight.  Of course the pendulum swings both ways.  Some of the top brands of 2006 will look quaint and nostalgic in a few years.

Special thanks to Greg Sterling of Screenwerk.com for the news.