a) Data & the need to keep it updated. So the key issue lies in the fact that there has to be a huge team who keeps on updating this information. Now, thats a lot of cost & every team will have to figure out the business model to keep up with it. Just Dial to a certain extent had solved it by charging for listings but that is not sustainable because as soon as someone comes in by providing information free - Just Dial’s model collapses.

b) Being on mobile: Again, this is where these guys will need to charge to stay ahead of the game for sometime and maybe capture the mind share of the subscriber. Also, web based monetization is not big in India, you have to be on mobile to get significant monetization to kick in.

c) Ad inventory: To be able to monetize the searches on web & on mobile, you need Ad Sales team (which is huge cost). The player that captures the local search market share on mobile will be the winner as monetization will really happen on mobile only.

d) UI (functionality & usability) is an important factor but not the differentiator. Everyone is going to have the same set of bells & whistles attached to the site.

Cheers

I don’t believe local search is yet so hot in India… but do these VCs see something we don’t? I don’t think so. Its a lot of hype… in my opinion the user base of people using local search online has not reached critical mass as yet.

or barista in hauz khas, delhi - and see the first result that you see on each…

so i guess the market is really in its infancy…long way to go…and winner can not be predicted just yet..

I think you need to check Zook out a bit more, 2 reasons:

1) Mobile is the next Computer (unless Rip Van Winkle wakes me and tells me it already is)

2) Ziva (the company behind Zook) powers Justdial’s web search as, it does for at least 2 other major YP providers

cheers

here visitor can send business enquiry as well as link request to enhance their business.

regards.

Thanks for stopping by and posting your views and plans with JustDial. I wish you guys all the best in fighting the Google Goliath - and if what you have posted factually correct, I see no reason on why you can’t take them on. As I said, try and also show a batch of say top 10 intelligent / probable results along with the category browsing option… it may reduce one level of frustration… and provide direct one level click access to results. No harm.

All the best.. and do let us all know when the new changes you mentioned will be live. We’d love to check them out.

With over 4 million users a month, 3 million on voice , over a million users on web (10 million page views) and couple of hundred thousand users in the form of WAP and SMS ( Not yet officially launched.) Justdial is undisputed leader in local search. The tag line India’s no 1 local search is factually correct.

Also let us not forget we are in an era of convergence of Voice, web and wireless.

Your Google local in US has all the above versions.

To answer your query, Why not display both - category matches and first 20 intelligent results?

We have ready technology to deliver the above. But Pre testing it internally and also with couple of hundred users we understand current search model is more relevant and accurate.

Google local search model is flawed; they will have to change soon or else loose users to other specialized local and vertical search engines. Just to prove this point please try searching for Plasma TV Retailers in 42nd street new york don’t be surprised if you also get irrelevant results of flower vendors, Music stores, book store and others.

Thanks

Subu

Thanks for your kind words. We, at Guruji.com, are working hard to live up to your expectations, and support by patrons like you makes us push the peddle even harder.

Thanks once again for all the support.

Regards.
Sagar M
Guruji.com