Google Local vs. Yahoo! Local

While there are many similar features offered by Google and Yahoo! local business listings sites, I found that there are many differences as well. For instance, both sites offer businesses the ability to list their address, telephone number, and business information updates for free. Google and Yahoo! also offer directions for the customer to find the business. The best feature of both sites are the interactivity of the customers to rate and review the business and the businesses to advertise events.

The differences in enhancement features distinguish these two sites. For example, although Google and Yahoo! have many common features, I found that Yahoo! was no different than yellowpages.com with an option to upgrade. Google is much more advanced, especially, being that these privileges are offered for free. For example, a business not only has the ability to list for free, but they can create coupons and display photos and videos. The map is just a treat that comes along with the other features. One has to pay to have the privilege of these features with Yahoo! by opting to purchase the enhancement additive which also includes a listing on the first and second search result page. Of course, this upgrade consists of a "month-to-month" billing cycle with no long-term contract. With Google, Adsense is the advertisement enhancing feature. It not only features business information on search engines, but it is also intertwined with AdWords which allows the listing to appear on sites owned by Website owners. One feature that Yahoo! includes that Google does not is its business directory. There is a listing of services and businesses that allows the user to narrow the search instead of typing in all the neccessary search information.