Yahoo launches SmartView on Yahoo!Maps

 
On Tuesday, Yahoo! launched SmartView on Yahoo! Maps, providing users with an interactive and visual way to search for local content.

Here's how it works: when a user chooses to map an address on Yahoo! Maps, the SmartView option is displayed on the right-hand side of the page. Users then have the option of plotting local points of interest on the map, including: Food & Dining, Recreation & Entertainment, Community Services, Shopping & Services, Travel & Transportation, Financial & ATMs.

For example, if a user chooses "restaurants," a series of yellow-and-red icons show up on the map, positioned where the local restaurants are located. Users can then click on those icons to get further information such as address, phone number, driving directions, etc. Users can also launch a search on Yahoo! Search directly from the icon. Say someone is searching for a restaurant. He or she could potentially find more information, such as reviews, through the Web search.

"For a traveler, that could be ideal," said Paul Levine, GM of Yahoo! local services. "They can find places to eat near their hotel and then go to Epinions for a review." Levine said that according to Nielsen//Net Ratings, "we're already the number one destination for local information online. We have over 15 million people coming to Yahoo! Local per month."

Yahoo!'s Yellow Pages provide the addresses and telephone numbers associated with the icons. The other SmartView content comes from Yahoo! Travel and Yahoo! Movies.

Yellow pages players typically face the need to drive traffic to their sites and Yahoo is addressing this in part by integrating their new SmartView feature into Yahoo! Search. Consumers can retrieve a map display in their search results after typing an address into the search box. Sponsored links appear at the bottom of the map, which allow consumers to plot the locations of certain businesses, in addition to sponsored listings from Overture which appear to be targeted somewhat by locality.

Meanwhile, on the Google front, beta testing is underway for the regional targeting features for Google's AdWords ads. In addition, Google Labs has been testing technology to combine local search with Web search.