Productivity Portfolio

I have mixed feelings about Google. On one hand, it worries me that so many people consider Google as the authoritative source for everything. I've had people argue with me that Google has cached all web pages and indexes everything. The flip side is Google has this great lab that has spawned many useful tools. The newest tool is Google Local.

Google Local is a cross between the yellow pages, a map, and related web pages. By simply entering an address and search terms, Google provides a listing of businesses in the neighborhood. Although Google wasn't the first to offer local business lookup, they have added some nice refinements.

The new service almost makes my local Yellow Pages obsolete. The reason is ease of use and coverage. While the Yellow Pages have been a great tool, the design wants you first know the category of a business. In many instances, the product or service I'm looking for doesn't seem to exist. Case in point, check your Yellow Pages to see if they have a category for farmers markets.

While Google can be faster than searching the Yellow Pages for businesses, there are two other areas where it can help you.

1. You need to find a listing of all businesses in a region with the same name. Perhaps, you're heading out on a trip and need a car adapter for your cell phone. You could enter in Sprint PCS etc as the search term.

2. You want to find out who your competitors are and their location. For example, if you're a web designer you might want to see whom else is in your neighborhood.

As to be expected with new services, there are some blips and limitations. You may be surprised at your results. They may either include people you didn't expect to see or even omit others. Fortunately, it's easy to refine your search or even start over. Go ahead and try the new service. Below are some examples we used to test out the service. All of them worked well except for snow removal. Then again, my zip code is not likely to experience snow and certainly not enough to warrant removal.