Disclaimer:
The opinions blogged herein represently only those of Rick E. Bruner and do not reflect those of his employer, persons or companies mentioned herein, or anyone else.
Wow. That's about all I can say. Amazon is so frickin' smart.
Just a few days ago I commented that I'd was skeptical about all the enthusiasm in the world of search marketing for the potential of local search as the Next Big Thing. My biggest criticisms of the idea have been that A) local businesses were so numerous that tapping them as a sales opportunity was a monumental task, and also that local businesses that B) there is a need for them to advertise online and C) which of the many online services competing for their ad dollars is the right investment.
Well, several big online players have been teaming up with established yellow page sales forces to tackle Question A), such as Google's recent partnerhship with SBC. But not until now had I seen B) and C) addressed compellingly. USA Today and SearchEngineWatch now report that Amazon, for its A9.com retail search engine, sent trucks equipped with cameras out to the top 10 metropolitan areas in the country to photograph every single storefront business, 20 million thumbnail photos! So, for example, when I search "restaurant" on A9.com, it appears to reference my Amazon profile to target a list of restaurants to me in the immediate vacinity of my (old) address. Reported in SearchEngineWatch:
"We allow people from their computer to look at the street, to walk to the left, to walk to the right, to see the neighborhood, to see parking—it's virtually like you're there," said Udi Manber, president of A9.com. "Pictures get you information faster than any other way. Very often you remember a place but not its name. This is a very easy way to find it."Given that everyone's heard of Amazon, this just might work. I love seeing a business do what others say is impossible by simply rolling up their sleeves and using brute force in a way predecessors presumed was impossible. Even when it means I might have been wrong.
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