Searching for a local result

Searching for a local result

Local search, one of the more interesting developments in internet search technology to emerge overseas last year has now made its way to Australia, courtesy of Yahoo! Australia and NZ Local Search (http://au.local.yahoo.com).

The Yahoo! Local Search screen presents a regular, clean looking search interface, however there are two search boxes instead of one.

The first box asks you to “Search for…a keyword or business name”, and the second box asks for “In…a city, state or Post Code”. To use this new kind of search, you type what product, service or business you’re looking for in the first box, and a physical location in the second box. For example, you might search for “coffee” in “Kirwan”, or “wine tours” in “Tasmania” or even “removalists” in “4810”.

The Advanced Search pages offers even more options, such as narrowing your search to a specific street name. There is also a very useful Guided Search option which takes you through a search step-by-step.

Once the results of your search appear, you’ll see the name, address and phone number of businesses and organisations which match your search words and location. If Yahoo! doesn’t find enough results to match the location you searched for, it will automatically expand the search to surrounding suburbs or regions. It also offers some suggestions for similar categories of business or organisation.

Clicking on one of the results gives even more details. Most companies have further information about their products and services, links to their email and internet addresses (if available) and even a street map. Theses details can be printed or emailed.

Some practice searches for local businesses and services produced some unusual results for the local area. We assume that emphasis has been placed on the capital cities initially, and we’ll be interested to see if the local results improve over time. Fortunately there is a feedback page where errors can be reported, and businesses and organisations who don’t appear in a search can apply online to have their details added. Be sure to check out the “Help” page for more hints on using this interesting service.


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