MSN Local Search Option

[JohnW]

I noticed that MSN is offering a local search option, so I thought I would post this and see if anyone here in the MSN forum could give a link to some good info, or post some.

A search for (no quotes) norfolk florist
shows an option at the top of the SERPS:

“We’re you looking for ”florist” near Norfolk, Va.?”

The following is a sample URL from one of the local choices, if you take the local option. It appears to have latitude and longitude coordinates embedded in it.


http://search.msn.com/results.aspx?q=florist&near=near&lat=36.850000&lon=-76.269999&range=5&display=Norfolk%2c+VA&FORM=SSRE


Does anyone know how they are determining the rankings for the local option? They do not appear to be in ascending order, based on the number of miles from the center of the city. Any ideas? How do they scrape the address, what happens to sites with multiple or no addresses?

[Nacho]

MSN Search came out with the "Near Me" button since the beginning. I believe they will first look at the IP to guess your location, but then you can either click on the city hyperlinked on "Web Results Near Me" or go into the Settings and change your default location.

[KeywordMonkey]

I presume they are going to connect it up with their US city guides (http://local.msn.com/) later on to generate more local orientated searches.

Found some comments on it on this this blog (http://www.payperclickanalyst.com/localsearchblog/archives/2005/02/msn_and_local_s.html). Seems the PPC ad targetting right now is none existent.

[JohnW]

Thanks for the info. I have never really paid any attention to MSN before. All of my websites naturally (well, you know what I mean) seem to do well there. This “new” thing I noticed wasn’t so new I guess. Still, I think local, across all of the majors, will be more and more important as time goes by.

[KeywordMonkey]

Couldn't agree more - esp. with players like Interchange developing PPC/IYP listing/SMS solutions in-a-box.

[KeywordMonkey]

Just saw this after posting: Interchange Acquires Local.com Domain Name, Announces Plans for Destination Search Site (http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/index.jsp?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20050307005480&newsLang=en)