That sounds like a “total word challenge” to me. I can be pretty verbose if I put my mind to it.

Mike

Stuart – I’m laughing now. I just wrote a response to you over at my blog that is about twice as long as what Mike has said above, but sort of says the same thing. I was very happy seeing you show up over there!

Miriam

The question of what % of businesses that “need” local is an interesting question. Greg Sterling contends that 40% of search is local in nature and growing. Like politics many product and service queries are local in nature.

In the end though that is an irrelevant stat in that if you are in the industry that needs a local presence, you need it. Those segments were fewer 5 years (hotels) and more common today (restuarants & florists for example) and will be more so tomorrow (who knows what). If your industry is one that needs to be there and your business in that industry ins’t there, then you are left “holding the bag”.

This process is a complex interplay between the searcher and what is offered on line. As more and more local content goes out there, searchers look for it more frequently. As the granularity of the data increases and the users learn about that new level of detail the searches will reflect that. It is very iterative and very much the reality of a new market and its development.

Once Walmart’s or Target’s local inventory can be searched it will be changed once again. Once Honda realizes that they are loosing sales because Toyota local inventory is searchable …..

So now you can go relax
Mike

I was even frustrated by those people who think that local doesn’t apply to many businesses. Perhaps those people can’t see the forest for the trees.

(And there I was starting to feel a little mellow today)