Phil Bradley just posted at Search Engine Watch about a new “local” search engine in the UK: AskTheLocal.com. The site is seeking to bring local retail inventory online. It’s similar to the US efforts of ShopLocal, StepUp, NearbyNow and Become.com.
The site is incomplete (in terms of merchants) but it’s a start for a market that doesn’t have anything else like this.
In the U.S., according to the latest U.S. Commerce Dept. figures, e-commerce is 2.7% of retail spending. But 66% of Americans use the Internet for shopping research before buying (MORI research for the NAA).
Curiously, AskTheLocal uses an elderly woman in a chair as it’s homepage icon.
November 16, 2006 at 2:26 pm |
[...] This was followed by Greg Sterling who commented here about the development. Greg is a US-based local search specialist who is well worth reading. [...]