News.com reports on Yahoo’s entry in local search through its SmartView service.
The SmartView service lets surfers use Yahoo Maps to view information on local points of interest, such as restaurants, hotels, parks, automatic teller machines and post offices. Along with highlighted maps, Yahoo gives details about locations, including addresses and phone numbers, pricing, Web sites and driving directions. Yahoo said it also plans to incorporate a user rating system for hotels listed on the maps.
Yahoo’s renewed focus on search is geared towards regaining its once dominant position in that space. It is in a favourable position to provide local search since it already has address information of users.
