About:

Bizbee was founded a year ago to answer the need for a community based Yellow Pages (YP) solutions. Based on 12 months of deep study and 11 years of experience in managing IYP operations, we developed a comprehensive model that combines many of the key elements of social networks together with special tools for the YP players (such as Yelp but much much better).

 The need:

YP together with all other medium (ala Google) empower the ones who pay more and not the ones that provide better service. As a result, businesses learned to invest less money on Quality of Service (QOS) and more on advertising.

This situation puts huge burden on consumers who suffer from bad QOS. The last survey in Israel found that over 70% of service providers are neither professional nor honest.

Not only users suffer from these phenomena. Good and honest businesses also suffer, due to the fact that there is no media that differentiates them from the others and illuminate their professionalism and high quality, this makes pricing as sole determination.

Israel Yellow Pages - April 1th 2008 - Reported : Internet YP revenue will reach 50% of Printed YP by 2009.


Kelsey Group blog -Jan. 8th 2008 -Report: GeoSign Has Big Layoffs, Splits Into 2 Units
 One of the quietest but apparently most successful producers in the local search space has been GeoSign, owned by webpreneur Tim Nye. The Canadian company has incubated TrueLocal, which aggregates local online databases, and is also invested in mobile directory player Go2, among other geospatially savvy companies.

But most of its fortune, apparently, has been made from arbitrage: basically, collecting micro segment URLs for spammy blogs, or splogs (i.e., “swimmingpools101.com”), buying cheap placement on Google, and filling the ads with more expensive Yahoo! ads.

Last year, the publicity-shy company broke its silence when it announced $160 million in venture funding from Bethesda-based American Capital. Since then, however, Google put a hole in the business model by cracking down on such practices. And now GeoSign is evidently being split up, per TheStreet.com and Ann Brocklehurst’s blog (which we saw via PaidContent).

The Street.com article says GeoSign has laid off “a big chunk” of its 230-person workforce and split the company into two parts: eMedia Interactive, which will own the domain names; and Moxy Media, which is being positioned as a lead generator and will be given to American Capital. American Capital is also getting a “substantial” chunk of its cash back in the settlement.

The downsizing of GeoSign’s ambitions — not confirmed by us — might seem like it would also affect other geodomain-heavy companies, such as Marchex. But Marchex is an entirely different kind of company, says Matthew Berk, Marchex’s lead search architect.

“On the traffic side, we’re seeing continued success in having our sites indexed by G[oogle] and others, based largely on the deep relevance of the content on the sites,” says Berk, via e-mail. “The prime directive across our network is to provide rich, compelling, locally relevant content, and an ever-improving user experience.” (Source The  Kelsey Group Blog)

IRVINE, Calif., Jan 09, 2008 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Local.com Corporation (NASDAQ: LOCM: 3.88, -0.14, -3.48%), a leading local search engine, today announced a relationship with Yelp, a leading local review site, which provides Local.com with two million Yelp reviews and ratings from throughout the U.S. The relationship increases the amount of local business content for Local.com, creating an even richer user experience for consumers visiting the site.

The content, which was implemented in December, appears on Local.com search results' profile pages.

"Every day, thousands of yelpers share their local insights with others through informative and entertaining reviews," said Geoff Donaker, chief operating officer, Yelp. "We're excited to introduce these witty writers to Local.com's 10 million monthly visitors."

"We are pleased to be utilizing Yelp reviews," said Bruce Crair, Local.com president and COO. "With two million reviews written about businesses throughout the country, this relationship improves the quality and quantity of content on our site, and delivers increased value to Local.com users."

About Local.com - Local.com (NASDAQ: LOCM: 3.88, -0.14, -3.48%) is a top U.S. website attracting approximately 10 million visitors each month seeking information on local businesses, products and services. The company also owns and operates a UK version of the Local.com site (http://uk.local.com). Local.com is also one of the largest local search syndication networks, publishing business information on over 400 regional media sites. Powered by the company's Keyword DNA(R: 41.83, +0.21, +0.50%) and patented local web indexing technologies, Local.com provides users with targeted, relevant local search results, including special offers from local businesses, user reviews, local businesses' website links, maps, driving directions and more. Businesses can advertise on Local.com with subscription, pay-per-click, banner and pay-per-call ad products. The site's mobile service, Local Mobile(TM: 106.24, +3.20, +3.10%), provides local search results via mobile phones and devices. Local.com claims U.S. patent numbers 7,231,405 and 7,200,413. For more information visit: www.local.com.

About Yelp, Inc. -Yelp is a website where locals read and write about their favorite neighborhood businesses. Yelp currently has more than six million unique visitors per month. The site was founded in San Francisco in July 2004. Since then Yelp communities have taken root in major metros across the U.S. and yelpers have written more than two million local reviews. For more information, please visit Yelp.com.

SOURCE: Local.com Corporation