Greetings All,
I’ve been doing some interesting reading up lately on local search vs. the good old phone book. Local Onliner recently published a nice blog on this topic, and frankly, the rebuttal to it was more meaningful to me than the original post. Basically, one of the blog’s readers took issue with the concept that Google Base is going to bring about the demise of classified ads, and the fellow went on to show some of Google Base’s current flaws in terms of usability and possible trust factors.Though it is undeniable that the Internet is making immense changes in consumer behavior, I would assert that we are nowhere near to the point of print media such as newspaper and telephone directories being completely replaced by web counterparts. I know from personal observation that many people are still far more ready to place trust in what they read on paper as opposed to what they see on a screen. Apart from the reality that a fair portion of the population is still, at this point, more comfortable with the older media and may not yet even be aware of local Internet search functions, the very fact that people know their phone book or morning paper is local gives a strong sense of a direct, quick line to anything they might be looking for in their own town. Classifieds and phone books are categorized so that a fellow looking for a used car in Petaluma, California can locate the correct column or page pretty promptly. Old habits are hard to break, especially when the person in question sees no need to change the way they do things.

Why Change?

Well, just for the fun of it, I’m imagining that my washing machine has just gone nuts and is spewing water all over my house. I need a plumber. I just had my husband time me attempting to locate a plumber in two ways - via the phone book, and via the Internet. Getting out of my chair, walking to the cabinet, dragging out the big book, plunking it on the counter and looking for the Plumbers section in the phone book was my first route. After locating that portion of the yellow pages, I then had to scan over the phone numbers, looking for one whose first 3 digits matched the biggest town I live near to. In total, this process took 1 minute and 3 seconds. By contrast, typing “Plumber Sonoma California” into Google took 15 seconds to bring up the exact same company I found in the phone book. I suppose I should add to this the time it would take to boot up my computer, which for me is an artificial addition to the study as my computer is always on. But, I’d say it would probably take a few seconds less to find a plumber via the web than through the phone book, even having to boot up the computer. Frankly, I’m not so excited about saving a few seconds to change the habits of a lifetime, even if my washing machine is ruining my carpet.

However, there is one big thing that neither the phone book nor the newspaper can offer me that the web can. And that, my friends, is the ability to research whether a service provider is good or not, in the opinion of my community. Though a quick search did not yield a review of this particular plumbing company (I guess folks aren’t excited about reviewing plumbers) I am positive that if my need was to locate a good restaurant to take my in-laws to, the Internet would suddenly become my best friend. I’d be delighted to know that so-and-so has an awesome vegetarian pizza, but that such-and-such accidentally served one of their customers a pitcher of bacon grease instead of salad dressing, all courtesy the presence of local business web reviews. The power of the keyboard is becoming mightier than the sword in terms of making business owners accountable for the services they provide. My sincere hope is that the abundance of reviews currently being written on businesses of all kinds will result in more companies learning that their reputation depends on actually providing top notch customer service.

And let’s not forget to look at the power of the web from the other side of the road. As a business owner, targeting two keyword phrases in your local area is likely to be considerably more affordable than paying to take out two full page ads in two different sections of the yellow pages. I have friend who works for a phone directory company, and never cease to be amazed at the cost of paper advertising. No doubt it is this very factor that is causing so many businesses to begin moving more of their budget toward their web presence. It just makes good sense.

Nevertheless, I suspect that it will continue to pay for folks like plumbers, morticians, and auto mechanics to maintain a visible presence in the yellow pages. And it will continue to work pretty well to advertise your used sofa in the newspaper classifieds. But the future continues to point to an Internet-oriented world. Very likely, the trees are eagerly awaiting this.

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