Traffic Up at Yelp and Insider Pages
Traffic to local social networking sites like Yelp and Insider Pages has climbed over the last six months. Traffic to Judy's Book, a local shopping site, has not jumped. These websites all combine local information with user reviews.
This week Insider Pages was acquired by the Citysearch division of IAC. Hitwise data shows that the market share of US visits to Insider Pages was up 34% in the past 6 months (August 2006 vs. February 2007). The market share of visits to Yelp, another user-generated local review site, was up by an impressive 91% in the same period. Judy's Book did not show an increase, although traffic jumped in September and October 2006 when it received a substantial increase in traffic from Local.com, suggesting a content deal that was turned off.Hitwise also looks at traffic to Local.com, Yahoo! Local and Live Local Search in the post and finds that traffic for these sites has not been growing. So the growth in this categry has mostly been occuring at social local sites like Yelp and Insider Pages.
Posted on March 2, 2007
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HotFrog Business Directory Goes Global
HotFrog is expanding from its Australia business directory to other locations around the world. The U.S. HotFrog site can be found here. As Search Engine Watch explains the website uses a buzzcloud or tagclouds to help with navigation.
Like its Austrailian forbearer, the site brings the buzzcloud concept (utilized most notably by social search engines such as Eurekster's Swicki and Yahoo!'s MyWeb) to directory listings. This makes a lot of sense given that online directories are category based.You can also use Hotfrog's search engine to navigate the website if the buzzclouds are not for you.
The buzzcloud gives readers a quick representation of the post popular categories; and its front and center positioning gives off the immediate impression that the site is very web 2.0. (it also offers RSS feeds).
Posted on February 16, 2007
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Yelp Offers User Reviews of Places and Services
Yelp is an online community that allows members to write reviews of places and services like restaurants, dentists, dance clubs and salons. Yelp has review entries for dozens of U.S. cities which can be easily searched from Yelp's search bar. Daily Candy calls the community review site part CitySearch, part Epinions:
Welcome to Yelp, an online community that’s one part CitySearch, one part Epinions, with a dose of Friendster thrown in for good measure. Here's how it works: You create a personal profile, then write reviews of your experiences at places in San Francisco and beyond (those you love and hate), or just browse through the thousands of irreverent reviews - and reviewers - already on the site. Invite your friends to do the same (the more people involved, the more suggestions for everyone).
Posted on September 26, 2005
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Judy's Book Combines Yellow Pages With User Reviews
SearchEngineWatch.com reports on a new yellow page website that is built with user submitted reviews called Judy's Book.
Judy's Book has local recommendations from most medium-to-large size cities in the U.S. The site is free to browse; to add a post or ask a question you need to register, but registration is free.The website is ready for entries in medium to large cities and currently features listings for Seattle, New York and the Bay Area on the homepage. The website also has social networking tools that allow members to develop relationships and form groups.
The site was inspired by a "little green book" of trusted sources kept by "Judy," the mother of one of the Judy's Book founders. The book contained a list of the best service providers in the Seattle area, according to Judy.
Posted on July 11, 2005
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