YellowPages.com & SuperPages Top IYP’s in Local Search
YellowPages.com and SuperPages put out dueling press releases yesterday about their success and innovations. Here’s YellowPages.com’s release and Here’s SuperPages‘.
Here’s comScore’s recent breakdown of IYP marketshare:
Total Yellow Pages Searches 100.0%
Yahoo! Sites — 23.9%
Verizon SuperPages — 20.1%
Google Sites –12.5%
Yellowpages.com –12.0%
Time Warner Network –7.7%
Local.com –5.9%
InfoSpace Network –5.1%
Dexonline.com –4.1%
Hitwise or Nielsen might have different numbers.
comScore says that a little more than 1/3 of the “local search” volume is coming through IYP sites, which are traditionally stronger leads, than the 2/3 coming via the major search engines.
Perhaps more interesting is that there’s apparently substantial overlap in the audiences doing searches on Google, Yahoo!, MSN, AOL, Ask and those using IYP sites. comScore says that, overall, 63% of the US web searching population conducted a local search in July (or 105 million users). That’s a combined audience of IYP and search engine users looking for local information, using comScore’s definition of “local search.” comScore also reported that there were about 68 million IYP users in July but that of those only 13 million were not also using search engines for local searches. (There’s a research question here about why and when users differentiate).
comScore also said that the IYP user base was growing at rates that were outpacing the overall search market (46% vs. 21%).
Local search is being used as a directory-assistance substitute by 52% of users, who are looking for a business phone number or address. But the largest category of usage in Q2 (59%) was for attractions and entertainment (restaurants, bars, theaters, etc.). Another large category was for services at 41% of users, according to comScore.
Consistent with other data, the majority of local search users either contacted a local merchant or paid a visit to that local business “offline.” But 37% did make an online contact (email or visited a site).
Here’s my earlier post on a broader perspective on local search.
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Greg Sterling is the founding principal of Sterling Market Intelligence, a consulting and research firm focused on online consumer and advertiser behavior and the relationship between the Internet and traditional media, with an emphasis on the local marketplace.
