• by Paul Gough , December 3, 2003

One area where the fast-growing search-engine marketing is heading is local.

Witness today's announcement by FindWhat.com that it signed a contract with Verizon Information Services, publisher of the Verizon SuperPages directories in print and SuperPages.com online.

Under the terms of the deal, FindWhat will help Verizon launch its enhanced local advertising service early next year. It's already the largest online Yellow Pages service in the United States, according to The Kelsey Group.

FindWhat.com will support the enhanced local system being put into place by Verizon. It's already helping other companies, like Lycos' InSite AdBuyer and a future deal for a paid listings service in Japan.

And in case you doubt the direction it's going in, Craig Pisaris-Henderson, chairman and chief executive officer of FindWhat.com, himself points out that the company considers itself the online equivalent of the Yellow Pages.

--Paul J. Gough