Reporting on the recent Search Engine Strategies 2005 conference, hosted by Search Engine Watch, Jane Wakefield of BBC News Online writes that:
"The battle is set to intensify as search becomes more relevant, more personal and more localised, representatives from Google, MSN and Yahoo told delegates at the conference."
And it’s not just standard web searches that are being localised. Chris Sherman, Associate Editor of Search Engine Watch, notes that blogdigger has recently launched a search tool that "pinpoints bloggers by their physical location in the United States, with coverage soon to be extended to cities throughout the world."
But internet users themselves seem to be leading the way in organising themselves around geographical locations. In the UK, there is the UK blog RSS feed aggregator, a directory of British blogs called BritBlog, and Cal Henderson’s (now working at flickr) London Bloggers which allows users to register a home and work tube station for their blog.
Earlier this week, USA Today (link credit: smartmobs) joined the slowly growing tide of publications joining the "localisation of the internet" bandwagon in an article about how people are using the internet to connect with their geographical communities:
"Five years after sociologist Robert Putnam documented the decline of community involvement in his book Bowling Alone, a new spirit of civic engagement is flourishing, largely because of 21st-century technology. cell phones, e-mails, instant text messaging and Blackberries are helping mobile, busy Americans link up with neighbors on their commutes to work, in the middle of the night and on business trips…"
USA Today interviewed Lee Rainie, director of the Pew Internet & American Life Project, who added that "People are physically more connected to their community because of Internet use."
Local searches, like bloggers who share your geographical location, shops near your home, the local newspaper, the local news, etc are all more relavent, at least for most people, than geographically distant people, services, and information. Think globally, act locally.
Related Cybersoc Entries:
An Apology to the Internauts (the internet isn’t all that exciting)