Nasty Directory #258

The business directory space is extremely crowded. Everyone thinks they can do better, Zenbu is no exception, but there are some god-awful attempts and from now on I’m going to document them here. I realise this opens Zenbu up for similar slating, please do, any feedback is welcome.

http://www.fastpages.co.nz/

I had written down all the things that bugged me about it but then I remembered what my Grandma said – If you don’t have anything good to say, don’t say anything at all – so…. that is all.

It’s “Your” World, Google

Google has embraced a more open approach to business listings by allowing anyone with a Google account to add/edit listings in New Zealand, as well as Australia and the USA. “It’s Your World”, Google says in their announcement.

It’s a slick intuitive interface and very nicely done. They differentiate between listings provided by a business owner, which you can’t edit, and those provided by users or directory partners such as Finda.

I tested it with the listing for Subway in Palmerston North, moving the map marker to the corner where Subway actually is, adding a website and a Fast Food Restaurant category. Subway Palmerston North on Google Maps

Afterwards, Google shows the change in location with ‘original’ and ‘edited’ linked versions and attributes that change to my Google account first name – although there is no more information than that so the accountability is only visible to Google staff. Interestingly to me, both versions have the website displayed, even though it wasn’t there previously. The categories are only visible if you are logged into your Google account.

Google certainly has the public mindshare and will likely become the dominant player in this space, overtaking Yellow Pages and other minor players like Finda eventually.  YP still has a significant lifespan given their massive hardcopy distribution and the old-school habits of much of the public. How long before hard-copy directories are a complete anachronism? It won’t be too soon for me.

Google says “it’s your world” but for now I think it’s actually “your”world, Google.

Zenbu is still doing its thing. There will always be a desire for the content provided by Zenbu and Google Maps especially under the Open License terms provided by Zenbu. There are massive opportunities for development around this data, especially in the mobile space and especially while we face other major constraints such as mobile data costs.

We’re in an extremely busy space where competition is high, but that just makes it that much more interesting.

February 2008 on Zenbu

I realise I need to start recognising the people putting in the hard work adding/editing content on Zenbu and making it into the place where you can “Find Everything” so I’m going to do monthly recaps highlighting some of the biggest changes. Each and every edit counts so thank you to everyone supporting Zenbu.

There were 55 individual editors this month which is a new high. Most people just adding/editing local businesses but that is great – if everyone makes small local edits soon everything will be covered.

The big editors were

UncleArk 415
zenbu 386
rodo 57
dave 29
garyt 23
DavidH 17
GaryMck 17
Chairman 16
dacoma 12
mentalinc 11
burgla 6
SarahG 6
dmcg026 5

UncleArk is a new user who has been collecting his own geospatial data for many years and wanted to share this with everyone. Thanks to him the rest home, car park, public swimming pool & kindergarten categories in Christchurch are complete.

Rodo put in a bunch of new entries and updated placements in the Westgate shopping center, adding to the work done by many others in Westgate in the past. As someone who can’t stand malls and wants to get in & out as quickly as possible if I have to go, I really appreciate this!

Zenbu added the EB Games, Tie Rack and Radius Pharmacy chains as well as doing some placement work on the Westfield Downtown & St Lukes shops after getting lost in the mall… urrrr.

If you have a lot of new entries to add, we can arrange to bulk load them rather than manual entry. Please contact sam@zenbu.co.nz if you want to help – data simply needs to be provided in spreadsheet format like http://www.zenbu.co.nz/uploadsampleformat.csv