Click2Connect Takes a Run at Friend Filtering

A new site, Click2Connect, seeks to build a better version of local search by using Facebook’s social graph. From the release:

Bringing a deeper level of personalization to social local search, Click2Connect today launched its next-generation social local search web site and Facebook application. The new tool provides access to unique Facebook friends’ ratings and reviews of local businesses — enabling users to search qualified recommendations from friends rather than from the anonymous general population . . .

For each review, users designate themselves as “easy going,” “moderately demanding,” “demanding,” or “connoisseur,” — adding yet another layer of background qualification for the pool of reviews. Users can also view three different overall business ratings (between one and five stars): their individual rating, their network’s average rating and the general population’s rating.

Before Click2Connect, Loladex was trying to do something almost identical but has suspended operations for the time being. There are other sites trying to offer a friends/network filtering layer on local search in different ways, among them GigPark, Goodrec and a number of others. And then there’s the integration of Facebook Connect into sites like Citysearch, which does something quite similar as well. So the idea of your friends recommendations is not new. It’s quite “old” as a matter of fact but it has been a challenge to execute well against.

I spoke with Click2Connect CEO Russell Gain and we discussed some interesting directions for the site in view of the challenges he faces. There are some novel elements here but it’s a path that others have been down without great success — not yet at least. While I could be quite wrong my view is that Click2Connect will need to try some different things and experiment before it can gain the necessary momentum. Along those lines, Gain has a good idea about how to differentiate, which I can’t discuss or he’d come after me.

The central challenge of course is to build usage. If Click2Conncet can do that it will certainly get visibility in Facebook. I did a quick, sample review during my call with Gain and subsequently a number of people commented on the review because it went out in my Facebook news feed.

Farecast Rebranded As ‘Bing Travel’

I’m in Seattle for SMX Advanced and after the “meet and greet” I had a very nice dinner with David Mihm and Chris Silver Smith at the Flying Fish, which was very good. After trying to use several sites on my Android ION/G2/Magic we just found one the old fashioned way: walking to a busy street and looking at menus.

We didn’t talk that much about search — well a little — and a little about the name Bing, “the sound of found.” That’s not the formal tag line or slogan but an internal reference that Miguel Helft of the NY Times publicly revealed in an earlier article about the launch. Even though it doesn’t seem to be part of Microsoft’s plan I like it quite a bit from a marketing standpoint — the “sound of found.”

I woke up this morning to an email that said Farecast was now Bing Travel.

Travel is arguably the strongest of the four key content verticals that Microsoft is pursuing vs competitors: Local, Shopping, Travel and Health. (Images and video search functionality are quite good on Bing.)

When I say strongest, I mean most differentiated as part of the search experience. Local may in fact be the weakest. I think that Microsoft needs to do some work on Maps/Local. The mapping functionality is great but the data and the presentation of results are not as great.

David Mihm and I discussed how Google should probably have an editorial team devoted to cleaning up or otherwise policing and ensuring the quality of the data. Similarly Microsoft could undertake an effort to enhance and improve its local data, which come from the commercial databases. I’m not knocking them (Localeze in particular is trying to do a bunch of work around data quality). But the engines need to go beyond this and use UGC editing and some editorial as well.

There are other ways that Bing could be quite different than Google on the local front. What Bing essentially does at the top SERP level is just “ape” the 10 Pack, although it’s eight listings in Bing’s case:

I know that Microsoft is trying to “leverage” three screens (PC, mobile, TV/Xbox) to their advantage. That strategy could also pay dividends in the local arena if done right and well.

A couple of years ago, upon the launch of Virtual Earth I suggested to Microsoft that the company put it on the XBox where a faster connection would really show off the 3D modeling and create a better user experience. In addition, a social network or social network data built on top of the Virtual Earth platform would be very interesting on TV. But there are simpler things the company could do as well.

In local there’s typically a great deal of effort and attention paid to the functionality built around the data but less often to the data itself.

We’ll see what Microsoft does. I suspect there are no local-specific initiatives within Bing, however.

Google Unveils LBC Dashboard

I spoke to Google’s Carter Maslan on Friday about the new Local Business Center dashboard but when the embargo lifted earlier today — cause people noticed it and started posting — I was on a plane. So now I’m in my hotel room and have a few minutes to dash off some thoughts before the drinking (at SMX) begins [insert maniacal laugher]. Here’s the mock screenshot Google provided to everyone:

This sort of thing is not going to be new to any experienced user of analytics software. The dashboard shows impressions, clicks, search queries — and driving directions requests by originating zip. That last element is novel. But to many SMBs this will all be new information and pretty fascinating. SMB surrogates may also find value in some of these data. I also predict this dashboard will see more online-offline data and tools in the future. Notice, for example, the coupon tab in the screen above. (Google has long offered coupons but it’s been a bit of a dud so far; that could change.)

Google already has all the data so it makes sense that they’d expose it as they have in other contexts and with other tools such as Google Trends. But beyond the simple fact that Google can do this, why is it doing this? My view is that Google will gain better and more complete data from SMBs over time and do some education about online marketing in the process. A deeper level of direct engagement with SMBs will benefit Google in the near and medium term in several ways.

In the category of getting better and more complete data, the module in the upper right shows (as with LinkedIn for CVs) how “complete” the business listing is:

Maslan said that Google was going to make this area (and related pages) very explicit and help businesses better understand the categories of information and types of content (e.g., video) that can/should be uploaded. The implication for SEOs will be: more complete information, better ranking. But Maslan told me that lots of SMBs have no idea that you can add videos from YouTube, for example, to their listings.

Moving on . . .

This part of the screen shows impressions vs. clicks and “actions” like CTRs to the SMB site and (more interesting) driving directions requests. Many people will get very excited about seeing this. I asked Maslan about calls and call tracking. Google had free call tracking with its radio ads product but that’s no longer available. He said that there was no call tracking available, but he didn’t entirely exclude the possibility in the future.

This module shows verbatim queries that resulted in the exposure of the business listing. This will obviously be interesting to professional SEMs but also very interesting to SMBs and help “demystify” Google and search engines a bit. That may sound crazy but there’s still lots of confusion and uncertainty surrounding search marketing and online marketing more generally among SMBs. The “transparency” of the information presented here will help overcome some of that confusion over time.

The area depicted above shows where local customers are coming from. The chart points are based on the “start” zip codes for driving directions. The obvious implication is business service area and it has some pretty interesting implications both online and offline marketing. Imagine translating this data into AdWords custom targeting areas, with the system offering a suggested service area by business category and location. When the browser very soon (or mobile device today) can better pinpoint the user, a relatively narrowly defined area could be more effectively served with ads. I may be spinning a fantasy here but there’s some interesting potential uses for this data on the advertiser side it seems to me.

The overall, net effect of this dashboard will be to show SMBs (that don’t already know) Google is driving traffic and leads to their sites and into their stores. This won’t directly translate into a big rush into AdWords, but it will stir up demand among SMBs for a more effective online presence and better online marketing. Google should also get more engagement from many SMBs who will want to offer an improved and more “complete” presence on Google.

This kind of simplicity is required on the advertise side if Google is going to penetrate more deeply into the traditional SMB market via self-service. This dashboard may give the company some insights and ideas that it can then use in AdWords as well.

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Another thought: Here Google does seem to be taking some “responsibility” for data quality by trying to encourage businesses to complete their listings profiles. The flip side of this was permitting any user to edit data on Maps. That was introduced last year. Once the listing was claimed by the verified owner or rep, however, it could no longer be edited. Google does realize that beyond other methods it has to get content and information directly from SMBs in order to address the data quality issue we’ve discussed so many times on this blog.

More Local Thoughts on Bing

Microsoft Maps/Virtual Earth is a very strong platform that hasn’t received as much exposure as Google Maps. Mostly that’s because few people were using Live Search. More people are going to use Bing and, as a consequence, more people will discover Microsoft Maps . . . er Bing Maps:

Another feature of Bing that I like is image search (brought over from Live Search). I like it quite a bit more than Google image search:

Bing Live: Search Away!

So I haven’t really had a chance to do the local search comparison with Bing that I did in general at SEL (although I threw in some local stuff there). But Bing is now live for all to use so why don’t you guys use it and see what you think on the the local front and otherwise.

The functionality is nice. However the quality of the local experience on Bing is to some degree going to be at the mercy of the underlying data.

Geotargeted search ads come from adCenter; however ads on local pages come from Yellowpages.com (which took over for Idearc/Superpages). While there is conventional “shading” on ads appearing on general search results (see below), notice the absence of shading on the sponsored listings once you click over to “local” on the left nav. The following screens are from a query for “dentist” without a geo-modifier:

Notice also the graphical tiles for the sponsored links:

What do you think of Bing and these choices for local?

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Related: Vanity search on Bing (xRank):

Also . . . Bing doing a little too well (no images) as sex/porn search engine this a.m.