Yellowpages.com has integrated product search and local inventory data through a partnership with Krillion. Idearc/Superpages was actually the first to do this several years ago in a relatively crude implementation (at the time) with ShopLocal. According to the press release out this a.m.:
This holiday season, consumers who use YELLOWPAGES.COM can browse and buy featured products currently in-stock at over 40,000 national retailer locations. This time-saving addition to retailer listings is made possible through a content agreement with Krillion, the product-centric local search engine that connects Web-influenced buyers with in-stock, in- store merchandise.
“This week’s deals” is a link on the “more info” line. Click on it and you get a framed version of Krillion’s page:
Click on any of the “see it” buttons and you’re taken to the retailer’s site/product page:
This is a reasonable start and a nice “value add” for Yellowpages.com. But I would hope that the site surfaces “product search” or some other, similar descriptor at a higher level — although I’m sure there are a few challenges in doing this.
Generally YP sites are not used for product search at this point (per comScore/TMP), but there’s an opportunity to get ahead of other categories of sites (e.g., shopping engines) that are developing or integrating this local inventory data right now. YP is deeply associated with local markets; we’ll see if the YP industry can seize that opportunity.
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Related: AdWeek picks up the KN survey results and delivers some good visibility and positive PR for yellow pages
December 18, 2008 at 4:49 pm |
If I remember correctly, Switchboard.com was also doing it way back in 2001-2002 through a small Boston company they had acquired called Nearby.com (or was it Nearbuy.com?).
December 18, 2008 at 4:54 pm |
Don’t recall that one. But regardless, these early efforts were highly flawed because the data largely weren’t there.
Hope you’re well Sebastien.
December 18, 2008 at 9:45 pm |
It might be the first IYP to launch it in the US, but the IYP in Norway (www.gulesider.no) have had this service for several years.
December 18, 2008 at 9:50 pm |
Is it widely used?
December 19, 2008 at 7:31 am |
I don’t work for them anymore so I can’t say what the usage is now, but when I worked there it wasn’t great, but OK. It is defined as one out of five (YP, WP, Maps, Web search, product search) main services. The first couple of years they had a model where they shared revenue, but back in 2005/2006 (if memory serves me right) the company that ownes the IYP, Eniro, aquired the product search company.
I do however remember Yell in the UK also having this service about a year ago, they integrated it in the YP result page. I think they served results from the product search based one the keyword searched.
December 19, 2008 at 12:59 pm |
Thomas you’re right. I think I even wrote about it. But completely forgot obviously. I couldn’t find my post or product search on the yell site.
December 19, 2008 at 5:39 pm |
[...] Not Yellowpages, First with Products By Greg Sterling So the other day I said that Yellowpages.com was first out of the gate among IYPs with product search. I was very wrong. [...]
December 20, 2008 at 5:43 pm |
Greg, it seems like they’ve removed it. I looked for it as well. Users aside, integrating such things in the search results is quite risky in terms of their own customers.
January 2, 2009 at 8:55 am |
I like iphone-sony