I’ll get into more detail as the weeks progress, but basically Loladex is a new site that will help users find businesses and people in the real world. It’s based on the premise that today’s so-called “local search” products — products like Google Maps, for instance — don’t work very well, particularly when it comes to finding local businesses:
- They have little in common with the way I look for local businesses “in real life”
- And they’re not truly helpful in finding local businesses, unless I already have a specific one in mind
The first point wouldn’t be much of a sin, except that (IMO) it causes the second.
So how do I find, say, a plumber in real life? Well, if I want to find a good plumber, I ask someone. That’s where I figure we’ll start.
An aside:
After working on local Web sites for many years, I find myself using the industry’s stock examples. For whatever reason, plumbers come up a lot. I think it’s from the old days of print Yellow Pages.
And yet … I’m always surprised by how bad the Web is at finding a good plumber. (Any old plumber? Sure, the Web can handle that.)
So many industry experts use “plumber” as an example that you’d imagine this problem would have been licked — or even just addressed — ages ago. If I have my way, Loladex will be the first local search product that actually does well on this poster-boy of search terms.