November 10, 2004

Bizrate and the Kelsey Group studied nearly 4,000 US consumers and found that 27 percent of total online searching is for local listings.

Ranking types of search sites based on familiarity, frequency of use, and loyalty, the study determined that Internet mapping sites are the most popular, followed by general search engines and Internet Yellow Pages.

Kelsey and BizRate surveyed 3,887 consumers whose average age was 44. Roughly 79% of respondents had been online for at least five years and 72% had high-speed Internet connectivity.

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On Friday, November 5, eMarketer attended the final day of The Kelsey Group's three-day conference, "Interactive Local Media."

Panelists from the day's discussions addressed developments made thus far in the market as well as the potential for the future. Speakers on the first panel discussion of the day cited issues such as ad inventory, how different search advertising should be measured and the idea that Internet Yellow Pages could be doing more to get an audience.

The keynote speaker from media giant The Hearst Corporation made an important point that traditional print news media can adapt to the Internet era and create an online presence whereas the ever-popular search does not have the same flexibility.

Search cannot create a local presence, this giving print news an advantage publishers need to note. Hearst also made the point that the media no longer owns publishing and the key to success in this new environment is convergence.

In the final discussion of the day, panelists did not agree as to when digital would eclipse print in the Yellow Pages market.

A panelist from Yahoo noted that industry players were only "five minutes into" the development of the local search market, while a panelist from local-i made the point that if the end user is not served, conference attendees would be in the same place in five years as they are now.

An InfoSpace speaker was pleased that this conference centered more around the consumer than the advertiser, and a panelist from Google hoped that in five years, there would be more hard data on local search usage to review, rather than just market projections.

Yahoo recently released a study on "Newspaper Loyalists" in the US — those who read the newspaper at least three times per week — and found that 69% go online for local information like news, weather and event information.

Source: eMarketer

        

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