This press release trumpets MSN's new Google killing search feature, and this MSN search makes it clear who Microsoft feels is more evil than satan. You'll notice that they themselves rank only 3rd and 4th :) (belated thanks to Barney and Jake for this info! ;)
The only thing M$N provides that looks new is the "near me" button. I tried it. I typed "kennels" and it led me immediately to Coinet and Cutting Edge Webs.
Later that day, I found out that Google has something similar to the "near me" button, but much — oh much — better.
It's called Google Local. You can type what you want to search for, and then where you want to search for it. No faulty geotargeting and you could search for business near a remote destination. That and of course it is accurate. Bleedingly accurate. It will give you business names, phone numbers, addresses, even if they have no website. It will plot them effortlessly onto a map. Here is what Google has to say about the service:
Sometimes the information you're looking for is related to a particular place — like the all-night doughnut shop that's nearest to your house. Google Local locates neighborhood stores and services by searching billions of pages across the Web, then cross-checking those results with Yellow Pages data to pinpoint the local resources you want to find. This innovative approach gives you access to the most — and most relevant — results for your search.
But there's more!
It would take a geek like me to try this, but where they say "where" and you can type your city and state, or as the above text insinuates, your zip code... or you can totally type your whole address! When you do this, it puts a little house icon right on the map!!! Booya, driving directions a la carte.
Posted by jesse at November 12, 2004 12:29 AMOh. My. God. That's hysterical! More evil than Satan indeed!
Posted by: Jalpuna! at November 12, 2004 12:41 AM