• by Ross Fadner , May 24, 2004

Local search is poised to take off. All it needs now is advertisers. This is a well-known problem in the local search market, and a new partnership between YellowPages.com and Interchange Corp. aims to address this issue by offering recalcitrant local advertisers a one-stop solution in the often confusing and fragmented local search marketplace.

As MediaDailyNews has noted in the past, partnerships may be an answer to the disparity of fragmentation in a market used to consolidation. There are lots of interactive Yellow Pages (IYP) providers on the Internet, and it has been suggested in the past that this is one of the deterrents to growth in the local classifieds and listings-driven market.

YellowPages.com and Interchange Corp. on Monday announced a private-label partnership that will marry the bid-for-keyword cost-per-click (CPC) paid search technology and distribution network of Interchange with YellowPages.com's reasonably well-known brand, traffic volume, and existing directory of advertisers.

The new service will be called YPclicks; it will be powered by Interchange's Keyword DNA local search technology, which will create campaigns for advertisers on the YellowPages.com Web site in addition to Interchange's Search Distribution Network.

Interchange serves over 100,000 national advertisers through its ePilot Web site and distribution network of over 170 search engines and Web sites, which delivers 3 billion searches per quarter.

Alternately, YellowPages.com will have access to Interchange's ePilot paid search network of advertisers, whose text ads will be displayed on YellowPages.com by Keyword DNA.

"Interchange is an important next step in our product offering. It allows YellowPages.com to provide more targeted search results for users and allows advertisers to pay only for potential customers that click on their ad," Dane Madsen, president and CEO of YellowPages.com, says.

According to Heath Clarke, CEO, Interchange USA, it's not that local advertisers are reticent to move online because they don't have the budget for it: "I'd say that it's more likely that (small- to medium-sized enterprises) don't necessarily understand the online product at this point."

"(Interchange) has worked with YellowPages.com to reduce the complexity of signing up, creating a keyword campaign, and managing that campaign," which he says in turn should simplify the crossover process. Clarke adds that adoption of the new medium is inevitable: "As long as there is a platform for advertisers to get in front of those consumers, then the advertisers will follow naturally."