You know things are really getting serious when two major players such as News Corp (True Local) and Sensis (Yellow Pages) take to sniping at each other in public – see website below:
Of course it’s a matter of life and death for the giant of hard copy directories but it is only another non-core business for Murdoch’s henchmen – which, let’s be frank, is probably as serious as it ever gets in Australian business circles where comfortable monopolies and tightly held oligopolies are usually the norm.
Anyone in this space will tell you the perversely named directory, based on a well established Canadian brand**, and ultimately US owned, has recently been spending serious amounts of money to grapple market-share from this country’s monopolistic but home grown print directory provider.
And it’s not their first foray down under either. It must be said that last time around they were fairly tentative, with a clearly inferior directory in terms of content, navigability and page rank.
However, the Blue Machine, MkII, is an entirely different beast altogether.
It looks good with a clean new blue interface, has a serious amount of content (listings) and a massive number of back links. And with the News Corp backing you would have to give them a fighting chance of establishing a worthwhile presence in the national market-place although a 70-80 years head start is a long way to catch up – even for the dirty digger’s well heeled and connected mates.
Not that TrueLocal has the field entirely to itself. At last count there was over 30 differing offerings available in the local search space in Wollongong alone (including YOC’s SMARTPAGES).
Given that the new improved TrueLocal has a lot going for it, you still have to wonder at a recent innovation they have introduced which everyone I know hates with a vengeance. It’s called ‘Click to Show Number’ – see below:
Jakob Neilsen, the US based guru in all things regarding website navigation and usability, would have heart failure to discover an online directory which deliberately made it more difficult for its users to obtain a search result.
The pity of it is that easy-to-read phone numbers are in fact a great bonus since most local searchers ultimately want to speak to the website owners about their products or services and it vastly improves conversion rates.
While on the subject, TrueLocal has 15 different Wollongongs to choose from (haven’t checked other areas but expect it to be similar) – have used Abrasive Blasting which is SmartPage’s first category for the example, see below:
Yellow Pages has only six, that’s a relief!
Of course SMARTPAGES has only one (1) Wollongong and that covers from Helensburgh to the other side of Albion Park and includes Shellharbour – see below:
As they say, sometimes less is more.
But there is more. SMARTPAGES has more local online listings (in Wollongong) than any other directory (as at 1 August 2010) – see majors below: Note most offerings from specialist directories (verticals) only have a small number of paid listings which are often non-locals, just serving the area, and they do not usually include any free local listings.
• TRUE LOCAL: 7 results including Mossvale first listing
• YELLOW PAGES: 9 local results plus 2 non-locals
• SMART PAGES: 13 local suppliers – see below:
I reckon it’s enough to make the yellow and blue turn green!
If you want to talk about SMARTPAGES or online directories generally either email me at: andrewc@smartpages.com.au or call business hours on 9516 2000 or 4254 0200.
** According to Bloomberg Businessweek, TrueLocal, Inc. operates as a local search engine specializing in driving online sales to offline businesses in Canada. It provides users with search results for local brick and mortar businesses, as well as offering design and navigation system that makes looking for dentists, restaurants, car dealers, and products and brands simple. The company was founded in 2001 and is based in Guelph, Canada. TrueLocal, Inc. is a former subsidiary of Geosign Corporation.
| 
