• by Tom Hespos , September 6, 2005

The recent stratospheric surge of gas prices in the United States introduced many online users to sites like GasBuddy.com, where local participants volunteer to track gas prices in their neighborhoods. Presumably, such a system could allow people to find the cheapest gas in their locale, compare gas prices nationwide, or plan their fuel stops for vacation trips. Sounds quite useful to me (especially after filling the 35-gallon fuel tank in my truck this weekend).

Alas, GasBuddy wasn't able to give me much useful data as prices rocketed upward over the weekend. I guess my hometown of Wading River, New York still needs a GasBuddy volunteer.

While the Internet was unable to keep me from getting worked over at the pump, it did get me thinking about a few things concerning one of the Internet's promises of leveling the playing field. Lots of categories still haven't figured out how to leverage geographic data adequately, such that a consumer searching locally would find the information valuable.

For instance, if one Saturday I decide I need to replace the ancient hammer my grandfather gave me, I should be able to search online for "hammer" and have geographically relevant search results delivered to me. From personal experience, I know there's an Ace Hardware up the street, two Home Depots within 15 minutes of my home, and a number of "Mom and Pop" hardware stores within 20 miles.

Search for "hammer" in "Wading River, NY" using Google's still-in-beta local search and it will return a bunch of businesses with the word "hammer" in the name of the company. Not a single price on a hammer or a listing of stores within 20 miles that sell hammers. Yahoo! is about as useful, except they also provide paid search listings for online retailers who would love to sell me a hammer. (Wouldn't you just love to pay overnight shipping on an item so small, yet so heavy?)

Both search engines refer businesses that don't sell hammers with the opportunity to sort the results by distance from the ZIP code I submitted. Distances are "as the crow flies," so results are even more irrelevant considering that many returned aren't easily accessible due to the fact that there's this huge body of water known as the Long Island Sound between us. Oh, well.

What local search tends to offer these days may not be much better than sloppily-indexed Yellow Pages data, organized in not-so-user-friendly ways. But it could be much better. What if search companies had a person or two in each locality, much like the GasBuddy volunteers?

Actually, forget the word "volunteer" for a minute. This should be a paid position. A local liaison could help a search company by providing the data they need to make local search meaningful. A local liaison could work with local vendors to ensure they submit and update prices and products, collect and submit local news stories, gather information on community events, and generally help search companies acquire and organize the data they need to make local search meaningful.

What do you think? Let's hear about it on the Spin Board.