Friday, October 14, 2005
Local search -- Part Two
Like I said, search will go local. That means even higher demand for website addresses (Domains) for the small businesses in town that didn't think they could benefit from or need a website. As the population becomes more tech savvy, (meaning the old computer avoiders convert or die off) I think it will become common place to use search to research purchases from local vendors. I mean have you checked out the gas prices lately? It's a 1/2 hour drive (and the gas cost) for me each way to hit the "local" music store just to find out that they didn't have that C/D that my son wanted anyway. Would have been nice to go online to that shop, punched in the Title and not wasted the trip.
The BIG guys (Google, Yahoo, Amazon etc.) see this stuff and are pouring tons of money into local search and new methods of bringing the World Wide Web to your town. The picture at the top of this article was from the A9.com website http://maps.a9.com/?mapMode=m&mapBvr=&ypLoc=Boston%2C+MA&mapFrom=&mapTo= where they'll even show you a street level image of the local shop in some areas. They're expanding too.
In addition to the demand of Domains from local business, there will be the continuing demand for Domains that actually include the name of your town. That's due to the idea that someone who is transferring to your town, may start his/her search by typing in the name of the town in the search bar, and then using the links on one of the sites to view that house for sale next door to you. Or, with the public becoming more savvy on search, he/she might type in something such as "Homes for Sale in Minneapolis MN" and bring up results including a website address such as http://www.minneapolis-minnesota.us/ Of course the purchasing of these location Domains already started a couple years ago, and you'd be hard pressed to find one available now at the cost of a new reg fee. There are a small number for sale to speculators or end users now in the secondary markets though that appear to be at reasonable prices. For the time being anyway.