A9 Rolls out Block View Local Search in 5 More Cities
Amazon’s A9.com expanded the reach of its Yellow Pages with “Block View” technology to include five additional U.S. cities this week: Fargo (Fargo?!?), Houston, Miami, Phoenix and Washington D.C. As a result of this expansion, A9.com Yellow Pages’ now counts 26 million images of business storefronts and entire downtown blocks in 15 total U.S cities.
A9.com’s Yellow Pages features actual images of business from a “Block View” so users can virtually walk and up and down the street to check out parking options, the neighborhood, and to discover other nearby businesses. Block View was initially offered in 10 U.S. cities when A9.com first announced its Yellow Pages in January, and this subsequent rollout across five more is the next step in A9.com’s goal to reach virtually every street corner in the world.
To capture the 26 million images for the Yellow Pages, A9.com sent out a fleet of trucks equipped with video cameras, global positioning system (GPS) receivers, and proprietary software and hardware. It took only a matter of months to capture the images. The 10 initial cities for Block View coverage were Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas/Ft. Worth, Denver, Los Angeles, New York City (Manhattan), Portland (OR), the San Francisco Bay Area, and Seattle.
More Features from A9 :
Block View: view photos of the business taken at street level. Users can scroll to the left or right to virtually walk up and down the street to see different photo angles of restaurants, offices and shops. This convenience gives users a better to way to select a business, recognize businesses they have seen in the past, find nearby parking spaces, get a feel of the neighborhood, and much more.
Click-to-Call: call the business with a single click of a button. This technology phones both the user and the business at the same time. Users simply pick up their phone when it rings and will be connected with the business.
Free Enhanced Listing: businesses can use A9.com Yellow Pages free of charge to reach existing and prospective customers. Owners and managers can submit virtually any type of information about their business, including photos, hours, payment types accepted, links to their Web site, and anything else that will help them reach prospective customers.
Directory Information: find the phone number, address, map, and driving directions.
Customer Reviews: see what other customers think of the business. Among the most popular and useful features that help Amazon.com customers make informed purchase decisions can now be used to review local businesses and services. Users can assign a number of stars (scale of 1-5) and write their thoughts on businesses and services, like the best dishes at a restaurant or which stylists are worth the extra wait at a salon.
Personalized Recommendations: receive personalized recommendations for business and services. Created through proprietary Amazon.com and A9.com technology, recommendations are based on the locations of the users and the preferences they enter, which means that more recommendations will be provided to users over time.
