After about an hour reading to figure out the "best one" I decided to launch a local search to see who in my area had what I wanted. This is where I ran into problems.

It turns out that in my city, none of the large electronics stores have a very good online presence. Google local returned results of stores in the area which may have what I was looking for, but I was unable to browse their websites to find out (mainly because of the 6 or so larger electronics retailers, only 2 have websites, and of that only one has their catalog online). Essentially, Google local is nothing more than glorified Yellow Page listings, with directions.

So I tried another avenue - and went to the sites directly which I thought would have what I wanted. And of those sites (including some well known large international retailers) I was unable to effectively navigate their site to find what I wanted.

To be fair, I will list the site that did have what I wanted. Radio Shack has the product. It was even listed when I did a product number search in Google (not local - the main index) and Radio Shack came up #2 or 3 in the rankings for that product (good for them!) and they have a nice page, with a picture, great description and pricing as well.

I was very satisfied with the Radio Shack site, and even browsed around finding other things to add to my "wish list." Just need a little extra cash now.

But then I started thinking - if Radio Shack is doing this why aren't there other large retailers taking advantage of the web? I know at least one other store in my area (and actually probably a dozen or more) have carried this item because I have seen it in various flyers, and I remember actually seeing them at various stores in town. So why don't the stores have them on their site?

Well, part of the problem is that the sites in many cases are nothing more than glorified online brochures. It seems that many of these retailers haven't realized the potential their online presence could have.

One local retailer, who is well known for their prices in both electronics and CD's, fails to mention that on their site. All they really advertise is the top 10 selling CD's and a few of the top electronics, but the information is all pretty dated.

And this is a flaw in local search - and a reason why it may take longer than many think to become truly successful - there isn't enough local content to support local search. While I predicted that local search will continue to grow in a recent article, I was referring to the technology behind local search, and not the content.

Ideally I'd like to see more local representation. Even local sites spawned off of larger corporate sites. For example, retailers like Wal-Mart have used their website to sell online. Which is great, but that is the only option with this site. A user can't check to see if the local store has the same items. And that is in the US. If you want to browse Wal-Mart products online in Canada, for example, you can't. Wal-Mart's Canadian site is a corporate site, not an e-business site.

In Canada, there are a few sites which I think have hit the nail on the head. Futureshop, Canadian Tire and others give users the ability to browse product listings, and even check to see if an item is in stock in my local store. To me this is when local search will truly work - when you can perform a product search and have the option to buy online, or find out if it is available locally.

Of course there are many hurdles which the engines are actively working on overcoming.

One is being able to reach into the store's website or database to get the product information out. Stores can help out engines like Google by providing feeds to Froogle. Also, using tactics such as URL rewriters to help make the site more search engine friendly can help as well, but it should be a more seamless procedure. In other words, the engines have to develop the technology to crawl deeper into the site, regardless of dynamic variables.

The physical location of the searcher in relation to the store is also another factor. Because Google doesn't know exactly where I am, it can make estimates and provide me with a rough idea on driving directions, but until the technology develops (likely with the wide release of IP version 6) a best guess is all we are going to get from a search engine. When IP6 is released an IP address (and more like multiple IP addresses) will be bound to you. In other words, your home computer, your PDA, your wireless phone, heck even your web enabled home appliance will have its own unique IP address. And with the broader usage of GPS, it will be easier to track, and match your physical location to your destination.

So when that happens (more local content on the web, and a more accurate idea of where you are located), you should be able to perform a search, find exactly what you want, and have the option to purchase online (either through the business' website, or a shopping engine such as Froogle), check availability online, and get directions to the local outlet to see the product up close and personal.

Further, the site needs to be able to distinguish where the user is coming from and attempt to match them to a local location, so that when they hit the site, the site already has the current inventory from the local store. The technology is already here, so that a person can manually pick their location, and a cookie is set, but it needs to evolve to take the user intervention out of the process.

So while there are a few hurdles to "better" local search, I don't think they are insurmountable. In fact the technology already exists to make most of it happen; it just requires the desire of the local businesses to want to do it.

Rob Sullivan
Production Manager
Enquiro.com

Copyright 2004 - Searchengineposition Inc.