Perspectives

Google Local India Sticker
Originally uploaded by shivku.

I was at a watch repair shop at BDA, Complex in Bangalore and I was surprised to see a Google marker stuck on one of the side walls of the small shop. On Closer analysis, It revealed itself as a “Google India Local Maps” sticker that Google possibly has shipped it over to these guys.

So, did the shop owner marked himself on the map (Using My maps) and got the sticker shipped? Very unlikely. I dont think he has used email, let alone maps online. I also tried searching for “Clock repair” and could not find anything useful. Infact, I could not find “BDA complex” in Koramangala, Let alone the “clock work shop” inside it.

So, that just means someone came over and distributed these stickers? That is cheap.

Having said that, the idea rocks. First, They have gone really local. This is as random a shop as it can get. Not the kinds you will find even on yellow pages. Second, this is free physical contextual advertising. Not many people are online in India yet, and not many non-internet ( Newspapers or TV) ads are contextual. Now, things in the physical world that you can relate to on the internet which is (also) contextual, well..that is a killer combo. Precisely what made me come back home and search for “clock works” near my house in Google maps.

Was just trying to see where Opus Bangalore where, apparently, this gorgeous subject constantly performs. And found out that Google has integrated results from local.google.co.in. They have also managed to crawl reviews from Burrp. The data set itself hasnt improved much though.

Sometime last friday, I heard about Google’s new Local service for India. As expected, they just have two text boxes in there unlike a yahoo, where you would expect links all over the place that will get you to forget what you came to the site for.

Although I am a very critical guy, I would refrain from commenting much because I know the problems one encounters with Local and India. No, it is not technology at all. Local is a solved problem in many other countries. Data is, and there is no easy way out. Hard work and innovation is needed from the data guys if this or any other local portal is going to become useful to the layman.

I just came back from proto.in and clearly, Local is the where the buzz is. A lot of startups trying to get their piece of cake from this potentially large and untapped market opportunity.

Coming back to Google India Local, there are some disconnects. Data that works on Google maps doesnt work on India local. I am sure they are fixing it.

But, a larger thought problem these biggies need to understand is there is a thin line between what a business is and what is not. For instance, the keyword “icici atm” doesnt give me a result, but “icici bank” does. Not fair to expect the end user to know what is “local” enough to be a part of “local”. At the look of it, seems like they are sourcing their data from Indiacom (never heard of these guys before) and Infomedia (JustDial is still trying to be a Google/Yahoo all by themselves? ).

Anyways, Thanks Google for the service. Hoping you will get usable content quickly in there somehow.