ClikitySplit is a new map-based local search site (built on Virtual Earth), covered pretty extensively here. I used it briefly last week and found it both interesting (because it uses the entire screen and is very “visual”) but also awkward in many respects.
Maps have become the prevailing metaphor for local search, but as Chris Linnett of Marchex has written, they don’t always work and aren’t appropriate to every local search use case.
Still, I think there’s an opportunity to use dynamic mapping, video and images (and reviews) to create a new more visual local engine (perhaps built entirely out of APIs).
January 15, 2008 at 12:27 am |
I am Jim Clouse, ClikitySplit’s founder. Thanks for the very nice compliment.
I am always interested in improving ClikitySplit and would like to learn where you thought it “awkward in many respects”. Or could it be that it is such a 180 degree different site from the search engines, that you didn’t immediately pick up on its nuances. For example, being empowered to choose hotels on a zoomed in map, then immediately display nearby restuarants on the same map with just the click of a radio button.
For more information, please check out our tutorials at http://clikitysplit.com/tutorials.aspx
Thanks!
Jim Clouse
Founder/CEO
http://clikitysplit.com/
January 15, 2008 at 12:52 am |
Happy to discuss. No, I appreciate the radio buttons — yahoo did this as the first foray a few years ago into map-based local search. It was one of the features I really liked.
Happy to tell you in a call what I thought.
January 15, 2008 at 3:38 pm |
I find the site to be very very slow.
January 15, 2008 at 9:24 pm |
I would love to speak with you. But I can’t find your phone number. So send me an email at sales@clikitysplit.com with your number and the best time to call and I will give you a buzz.
Thanks man!
Jim Clouse
http://clikitysplit.com/