• Search Engine Watch, Wednesday, January 2, 2008 4:30 PM

Kelsey Group analyst Mike Boland serves up a set of 8 local search trends that will "rock the search engine world in '08"--starting with the explosion of video ads that began last year. Boland says that CitySearch kicked off the trend in May, and multiple IYP providers (including Idearc's Superpages and AT&T's YellowPages) jumped on the bandwagon. Expect the trend to continue.

Boland also says that IPTV is the next local search frontier, as telecom providers like AT&T are investing big bucks to build out their Internet-to-TV networks, and monetize them with local search ads (i.e., on-screen searches for plumbers or pizza shops) and classifieds.

Meanwhile, local search on mobile phones--both via voice and via mobile Web--will be a major focus this year. Both Google and Microsoft entered the free directory assistance market in 2007, and we'll likely see a clash between their voice-powered ad platforms as local businesses choose who to list with. But Boland says that we still haven't quite reached the tipping point with mobile search, so expect services like Yahoo Go and anything connected to the iPhone to continue to expand.

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