Yesterday, we here at EZlocal stumbled upon Sporcle, a trivia quiz website on which users have a set time limit to name all of the items within a given subject. After bumbling through a few quizzes on history and geography, we searched for a quiz on a topic we truly excel at: Local Search. Much to our chagrin, no such quiz existed. So we made one... [More]

Today I saw a post from a friend on Facebook touting a new feature. Their wall post read:

“Hey check this new facebook feature out, i got my own mobile number. go to www.fb-mobile.com to get it.”

Forty minutes later I found out their account had been hacked. [More]

According to the June comScore report, Google presented over 10 billion search results in the US last month alone. Of those, over 2 billion were local searches - consumers looking for products and services in their area -- to buy offline. As the number of local-based searches continues to grow on Google and Yahoo, EZlocal.com’s clients are positioned to reap the growing benefits of targeting potential customers in their area. The local search space continues to offer new opportunities to small business owners who want to get a leg up on the competition. With somewhere around only 15% of existing business listings even being claimed online it’s winner takes all. It’s early bird takes the worm in local search, so businesses looking to secure top search engine placement need to act quickly. General contractors, plumbers, roofers, insurance agents, attorneys, dentists and jewelers are just a few of the small business owners who have benefited tremendously from partnering with EZlocal.com. The ... [More]

The Yahoo! Microsoft Search Alliance has been making huge strides over the past week. Last week, Yahoo! announced a begin to testing Bing data. Today however, we are seeing real evidence for the first time. According to Yahoo!, this is the beginning stages of Yahoo! and Bing combining forces and using the same search results. It seems to only effect organic search. Anything else from the universal search world seems to be unaffected including local map results, real time results, new results, etc. [More]

Google employees have been answering some user questions and ideas via YouTube. They cover topics from duplicates to spam, check out the YouTube playlist or see some of the "best of" embedded below. Our favorite takeaways are how to report duplicate listings (don't delete the listing complete or all instances may get deleted!), using Areas Served to hide your address, and "please do not rank business for wikipedia entry." Duplicate Listings How do I merge and/or report duplicate listings? Home Based Businesses What do I do if I don't want to publish my business address? Spam and Rankings Honestly this is just the best phrased question ever: Ranking a business listing for wikipedia quotation is a disaster & increasing amount of spam. please do not rank business for wikipedia entry. spammer use places name e.g - illford locksmith , to get wikipedia quotation. let make google map better.

Not only did we fix the antenna issue, but we tricked out our resident iPhone 4 with a customized rubber wristband. It’s easy, interchangeable and doesn’t involve a single trip to the Apple Store. All you need to do is cut holes out with an x-acto knife for the dock, mic, speaker, and headphones jack and you and your iPhone 4 antenna should be good to go. Tin foil bunny ears work too, but we think this has more curb appeal. [More]

Go to a large corporate website and click open their site map. You will be inundated with a multitude of boastful links and phrases, all in the same vein: “Community & Giving,” “Helping Society,” “Giving Back,” “Doing Our Part,” “Corporate Philanthropy,” “Social Responsibility,” “Charitable Giving,” etc. The effect is humanizing. Suddenly, the corporation seems a bit more friendly, a bit more caring. [More]

What are the 10 biggest fast food chains in the United States? Everyone knows McDonald's and Subway top the list, but where do Starbucks, KFC, Burger King and the rest fall in the top 10? [More]

Last week EZlocal unveiled zuluz, 16 handy business attributes added to the point of search, which allow users to add extra specificity to their local queries. While local search used to only accommodate a "what" and a "where," EZlocal's zuluz now bring a third dimension to local business search, a "with." Let's take a look at how it works.

It's late and you just got bit by the coffee bug. However, work has been pretty hectic and you still have some email to catch up on. To complicate matters further, you are completely out of cash; wherever you go had better accept credit cards. Using traditional local search to track down a coffee house that is open late, accepts credit cards and provides wifi isn't an easy task. A query for coffee houses in your local area may yield plenty of results, but how do you zero in on the coffee houses that have the features you desire? By doing an EZlocal zuluz search, of course! [More]

Frequent visitors to EZlocal may have noticed a change to our search in the last week. Gone is the conventional two-box, location-based local search. Taking its place is an exciting new search, which now offers three dimensions: "what", "where" and "with". Capably filling the role of the "with" criteria are our beloved zuluz.

In the coming weeks we will tell many stories about the creation of zuluz. You will learn of our palindrome obsession and love of the letter "Z". You will learn how we decided upon the name "zuluz" and what it means. You will even learn about the new patent pending technology that supports this third dimension of local search. All in good time. First, a quick zuluz primer: [More]

When you work for a local business search engine, you grow accustomed to a certain amount of spam. Offenders will choose a city and create 5 to 10 business profiles that center around a certain industry. The business names will all be different, but the profiles often have the same phone number, link the same website and display the same stock photo. Once in a while you will run across a craftier spammer who uses a different phone number for each profile too, but if you take the time to call each number you will be greeted by the same person.

I don't relish deleting these profiles. On the other side of those phone numbers there is a guy who performs that service in that area. He may even perform it very well. Does he deserve to be found in local searches? Yes. Does he deserve to be the only one found in local searches? Absolutely not, which is why his profiles are always 86ed. [More]

Google Street View's coverage extends well beyond local business search. We took a virtual cruise through South Africa and got an amazing sneak peak at some popular World Cup destinations including inside peaks at seven stadiums. A great adventure for football (aka "soccer") fans. We even got off the beaten path and spotted an elephant! Yup. Not too many of those roaming around on Main Street. These images are pretty fresh as Google just snapped a slew of new ones in and around host nation South Africa. [More]

The online metric provider, Comscore, put out an interesting blog last week, noting that the average length of internet search queries is getting longer: The average number of words per search in the United States in March was nearly 3.2 words and it has been growing for some time [up from just under 2.9 in July-08]. This is a far cry from our original limitations of "shoes" in order to now search for and find a pair of "nike air jordans." None of this should come as a shock.  Search engines are constantly tweaking their algorithms, striving to deliver the best and most relevant search results to their users.  According to Matt Cutts, the head of Google's Webspam team, Google tends to make a change to their core search algorithm at least once a day.  The consequence of these continual improvements is user trust. Inspired by the ever-improving search results, users employ longer, more specific queries in an attempt to zero in on their original intent.  So, what are these extra keywords u... [More]

A few months ago, we added some additional social sharing features to every business profile on EZlocal. We kind of snuck it in, so here's the official blog announcement. It's now easier for users to "recommend" a business they like on EZlocal, and publish this on Facebook and Twitter. [More]

For children, summer break inspires excitement. Three months of freedom for playing, planning adventures and plotting assorted mischief. For mothers, on the other hand, summer break may provoke slightly different sentiments. The errands of everyday life remain the same, but during summer break, mothers often acquire a posse of high-maintenance, low-patience helpers. Suffice it to say, accomplishing these tasks becomes a much more burdensome chore.

However, a savvy mom will plan ahead, choosing businesses and shops that will keep her children entertained and content while she works her way down the to-do list. Therefore, a savvy business owner’s job is twofold: create a kid-friendly environment and then spread the word that you run a child-friendly business. Here are a few tips on how to accomplish both: [More]