The Local Web

Terry Heaton has posted another of his great essays.  Here's his description:

This paper examines two important assumptions about doing local business on the web — that the evolution of the local web is very much about the evolution of local advertising, and that the local web functions, in some important ways, very differently than the global web. Opportunities within the local web depend on our ability to define and nurture it, and that is wide open at this point.  ¶  If the real growth in online advertising is trending towards local (it is), then local media companies should be at the forefront in actively pursuing and enabling this, instead of sitting back and waiting for it to come to us.  ¶  I promise you, this is the goal of the internet pure plays who are pursuing local advertising with vigor.

Link:  Terry Heaton's PoMo Blog.  --Dennis

Comments

[Howell Jones]

Hear me....See me... I'm here waving my arms like a Katrina victim on a roof top!! Hyper-local can work, is working!!! If your revenue models are on target with what others consider valuable....then the value is automatic, to many people are trying to sell the idea that some of these local sites are valuable just because of the local user generated content...and usually the content is derived from a handful of locals that are town ego-maniacs that take the open forum to advance their opinions...when in the real world, people discount these reviews...Let's redefine Hyper-local to be accurate local information generated by the business owners - as they are the focus of advertising dollars and the only ones that should be able to convey the truth about their business....bottom line if a business is poorly run the locals stop using it....but Hyper-local is to wide a vertical...DiscoverOurTown is Hyper-local with user generated content from the only person that matters...the business owners!! The local news – the local gossip should be one tab among many on a site…not the whole site…I’m waiting for JudysBook to announce the same problem soon…even though it has taken a very large step into the advertising model with banners, towers and more with national advertisers!...Just what the consumer wants in a local site…Right???