The Change Mariner

Local Search: New Market for Search Engines

New York Times:

Can small businesses be persuaded to pay for online advertising even if they do not sell their products or services on the Web?

That is a big question for Internet companies like Google and Yahoo, as well as Yellow Pages publishers like Verizon and SBC, which are stepping up their efforts to sell online ads to plumbers, dry cleaners and other small businesses, most of which do not have Web sites.

A survey released last week suggests that small businesses may not be able to ignore online advertising for long, because potential customers are looking for them on the Internet.

The Kelsey Group, a research and advisory firm, and BizRate.com, a shopping comparison service, queried more than 5,500 online shoppers and found that 25 percent of their searches were for merchants located near their homes or workplaces. The figure, more than twice what the Kelsey Group had estimated last year, is particularly striking because search engines and Yellow Pages Web sites have done little until recently to give Internet users easy ways to find local businesses.