Recently, Harris Interactive conducted a survey for us that studied the “psyche” of the online reviewer. We wanted to determine what motivates people to contribute to online review sites like Yahoo! Local and we found that the majority of online adults feel compelled to offer their opinion in order to help others in their community through knowledge-sharing, followed by a desire to promote the business and help the merchant succeed.

Based on these motivators, it’s no surprise that three in four online adults (77 percent) agree that sites with online reviews of local businesses are valuable community tools, and one in three adults (33 percent) feel more connected to their community by contributing to online review Web sites.

Needless to say, we’re glad that we’re providing a service that helps connect others and offers invaluable advice when making offline purchasing decisions. Four out of five online adults (80 percent) are likely to be influenced by a review, and seventy-one percent of respondents at least somewhat, if not strongly, find online reviews helpful in making purchasing decisions. In addition, one in four adults (29 percent) say their purchasing decisions are either always or often influenced by online review content! That’s a sizeable percentage of the population. You can feel good knowing that the reviews you write on Yahoo! Local are helping others in your community make decisions about which product or service they plan to purchase.

We’re also happy to report that more users are influenced by positive reviews than negative reviews (27 percent versus 12 percent, respectively). These numbers are inline with ones that resulted from a similar study last year and they show that while online reviews are helpful for users, they are also helpful for local merchants.

It’s great to work on such a positive community tool for both local businesses and consumers alike, and these survey results only strengthen our belief in the services we provide through Yahoo! Local. We hope you’ll continue to find the site a helpful resource and we always welcome your opinions to make the service even better!

Frazier Miller – GM Yahoo! Local

August 29th, 2006 was an exciting day for us; it was the day after Flickr first announced their Geotagging feature using the Yahoo! Maps API, and they had exceeded their first month projection of 1 million geotagged photos in a single day. It goes to show that putting pictures and places together go hand-in-hand like peas and carrots, Bonnie and Clyde… You get the idea.

Today Flickr released two new maps-related features. The new Flickr Places pages will take some of the 30+ million publicly geotagged photos already uploaded and organize them into key themes for over 100,000 locations. Each Places page features interesting photos and photographers, related Flickr Groups, and the tags that make that area unique.

The maps page itself gets a great upgrade as well, with an improved world map where people can easily view popular and up-to-date themes. Clicking on any of these hot tags will take you to a selection of current photos from that area, tagged with more detailed information. This will provide a great visual lens into the latest interesting things happening around the world.

These new features further demonstrate our commitment to a global platform and will be available in English, French, Spanish, German, Italian, Portuguese, Korean, and traditional Chinese.

Michael lawless

Sr. Product Manager, Yahoo! Maps

As mentioned in the May 8, 2007 post, the Yahoo! Travel team has been working on a map-on-map feature which enriches our Yahoo! Maps by overlaying independent map images to add more details and context to our base maps.

Now, that same team has further developed the map-on-map feature into the sharable application called MapMixer. This means that anyone who has a map in .jpeg, .gif, or .png format can now upload their map onto a background of Yahoo! Map and mix it, blend it, or customize it. The app gives users tools to adjust transparency, pin-point chosen locations for accurate overlaying and placement, stretch, rotate, zoom, and pan.

If you’re planning a picnic at the park for a group of friends, you can mix your own map of the park’s amenities to pick the best spot and give directions to it. If you’re a tour guide, you can upload images of your route and key sights. If you are showing the past as it relates to the modern-day, add public domain historical maps.

There are endless uses for MapMixer. Take a look at what others have done to customize Yahoo! Maps on the Featured Maps page, and then try it for yourself.

Congrats to Adam Chang, Nimit Maru, and the Yahoo! Travel team who put this great service together.

Michael Lawless – Sr. Product Manager, Yahoo! Maps

If you happen to be the proud owner of a shiny new Mercedes-Benz with Tele Aid, then you should be pleased to hear about our new Send to Car feature, which allows addresses and businesses found on Yahoo! Maps to be sent directly to your Mercedes-Benz vehicle through their new Search & Send program.

Starting today, a new ‘Send to Car’ link joins ‘Send to Phone’ and ‘Send by Email’ in the dropdown menu on Yahoo! Maps, and it’s super easy to use in two ways:

1. Just enter an address or get driving directions on Yahoo! Maps as you normally would. Click the “Send to Car” link, and select which (if more than one) address or addresses you’d like to download to your vehicle. Edit the title of the address if you’re so inclined and finally, enter the email address of your car and hit send
2. Or, you can send business information directly from their popup window when you use “Find a Business on the Map.” Search for businesses by keyword or by name, such as “dry cleaners” or “Pizzeria Uno” and click “Send to Car” on the in-map popup and follow the same instructions above.

Once in your vehicle, simply push the i-button, and the address information will be downloaded directly to your navigation system. You will be prompted to begin routing immediately, or save the address for later use.

One of the best uses for this feature is not only to send yourself addresses to use later, but to have friends and family send you addresses while you’re on the road when you need them, so you don’t have to worry about writing down information as you drive, or pull over to enter addresses yourself.

We were pleased to work with Mercedes-Benz as the first automobile manufacturer in our new Send to Car feature, and we think this new bridge between the comfort of your own keyboard and your in-car nav system is the best of both worlds.

Michael Lawless – Sr. Product Manager, Yahoo! Maps

Remember the old adage “you reap what you sow?” Well, it’s nowhere more true than in the neighborhoods in which we live. If you’re like me, perhaps you’re tired of seeing your favorite small businesses close due to competitive pressure from a chain store. Who knows, maybe you could’ve helped save that fave if you gave that merchant some kudos and told your neighbors about your great experience.

Well, now Yahoo! Local will help you do just that. We’ve completely overhauled the site to make it easier to contribute your opinion and through a new, updated algorithm, we’re making sure that search results take your ratings and reviews into account. We want to make sure that people’s contributions to Yahoo! Local count in more ways than one.

An example of this in action is the “pizza” in Chicago, IL results which better reflect what the community says is the best pizza in Chicago (obviously a hotly contested debate, we’re not sure we want to get involved in…):

In addition to the improved accuracy of our search results, some of the other new features we’re rolling-out today focus on more ways for you to find what’s best and closest to you:

• Commenting on User Reviews – No longer will it feel like shouting into the wind when you write a review. Now the people who benefit from your tips can reply back. You’ll also be able to track comments on your reviews from your My Local page.
• Weekender – Offers a weekly selection of events, movies (including show times and reviews), dining picks, and more to help you plan your weekend.
• More “Local Buzz” – Shows the top-moving search terms in your hometown with a new search cloud and exposes the most recent reviews of businesses in your area to see what people are buzzing about.
• Best Local Events – Taps into the Upcoming social events database to surface the best events in your hometown.
• Most Popular – Highlights the best of a city in the key categories of Restaurants, Health & Beauty, and Home & Garden.
• My Local Improvements – A new “save for later” feature so you can quickly archive those hidden gems you uncover along with your recent reviews, tags, and collections.

So, make sure to update your profile with a picture or avatar, look up some local favorites, write a few reviews, and comment back on some helpful reviews you discovered along the way.

Got a great idea for what you’d like to see next? Tell us about it on our new suggestion board.

Thanks!

- Brian Gil, Sr. Product Manager, Yahoo! Local

The team here at Yahoo! Local, the source behind the shortcuts that appear at the top of the search results page when you do searches like “New York, NY restaurants,” rolled out some new features today. We’ve been working on some changes to our Local search capabilities to better utilize the millions of user ratings, reviews and other user-generated content from our community, to ensure their voices are heard loud and clear in your search results. For example, a search for “Romantic French Restaurant, SF,” will deliver the following leader board:

There are also new opportunities to offer up your opinion and experiences with people in your community with the new Yahoo! Local. In particular, you can now comment on user reviews in addition to reading other people’s and be a part of a vocal and active user community. We hope that the additional opinions and reviews will help make everyday decisions like picking a florist, finding a great day spa and zeroing in on the nearest Starbucks that much easier for you.

You can check out more details on the new features — ranging from new ways to learn about events to new “My Local” functionality — over at the Yahoo! Local Blog so head there for more detail.

Try it out yourself, update your Yahoo! Local profile and tell us what you think at the Yahoo! Local Suggestion Board.

Brian Gil
Product Manager, Yahoo! Local

As proclaimed yesterday by c|net, “The Webware 100 awards recognize the best Web 2.0 apps.” So, it’s my pleasure to share with you that Yahoo! Maps has been named a winner in the Reference category for 2007.

We’ve made a number of improvements in the last few months, including an improved mapping platform, better design, mobile offerings, and new international streets and satellite imagery. While we’re always excited about the direction our product is headed in, we still count on your feedback to make the product more useful and easier to use. We will continue to improve the technology, interface, and features that matter to you most, particularly focusing on being the most accurate mapping service available.

More details on our award win and the other 99 top Web 2.0 apps can be found here.

We hope you’ll continue to help us make Yahoo! Maps the best mapping system out there. If you haven’t yet used the Yahoo! Maps and Local suggestion board, check it out.

Cheers!

MichaelLawless, Sr Product Manager, Yahoo! Maps

As many of you know, Where 2.0 was earlier this week and Digital Earth 5 is next week. Bridging the gap, Yahoo! is hosting WhereCamp, a free ‘unconference’ at the Yahoo! Sunnyvale campus, focusing on all things Map and Geography related. The fun starts Saturday morning at 10am, bring a sleeping bag and spend the weekend if you dare.

Check out more info on Yodel or in Upcoming, or just sign yourself up on the WhereCamp Wiki.

Cheers!

Mike Lawless, Sr Product Manager, Yahoo! Maps

Congratulations to the Yahoo! Real Estate team on their newly updated Home Values center that launched today! They’ve used the Yahoo! Maps AJAX API as well as the Yahoo! Local search API to create a cool mash-up that provides users with a more comprehensive view of home valuations, community insights, and local connections.

Searching for a particular home’s value takes you to an expanded results page that features estimated home values from Zillow.com, as well as two newly formed relationships with eppraisal.com and reply.com. This allows you to get multiple home value estimates from leading providers in order to give users a more complete view on a home’s potential value range. The real estate team also expanded their Zillow relationship to include home data (such as beds, baths, square feet), sale history and tax info, as well as recently sold comparable homes that are plotted on the map. Additionally, you can view nearby similar homes for sale from Y! Real Estate to better understand the ‘ask’ side of the valuation process – what are sellers asking for similar homes right now?

To tap into the knowledge of the Yahoo! community, the real estate team joined up with Yahoo! Answers in order to surface home values related questions and answers directly on Yahoo! Real Estate. You can browse the top home values questions and best answers, view more home values Q&As, search Y! Answers for any question/answer, or ask the community a question of your own. Using the Yahoo! Local search API, they also surface local valuation professionals to help you connect with top rated real estate appraisers in your area should you choose to get a professional home appraisal.

Check it out and let us know what you think!
Brian Rothenberg, Product Manager, Yahoo! Real Estate

Today we’re rolling out a brand new Yahoo! Maps that has its own proprietary platform to call home. Bringing the Yahoo! Maps platform in-house gives us numerous advantages, including; global scalability, having more direct control over upgrades, easier integration of new features and user feedback, and a greater ability to improve accuracy.

The advanced functionality introduced with this new platform addresses suggestions, feature requests and bug fixes reported through the yws-maps group. Your ongoing feedback is truly appreciated, as it plays a crucial role in our development cycle.

Some of the front-end improvements you’ll immediately notice when test-driving the improved Yahoo! Maps include:

• Ability to get driving directions within 34 European countries from the U.S. Yahoo! Maps site, including
  • Western Europe – Complete coverage
    Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Great Britain, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Ireland, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, France, and Italy
  • Eastern Europe – Comprehensive coverage
    Albania, Bosnia/Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, The Czech Republic, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Poland, Romania, Russia, Serbia/Montenegro, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Turkey
• A fresh new look and feel to our maps design that is distinctively Yahoo!
• Terrain overlays that provide added dimension and information at the medium and higher zoom levels.
• Neighborhood and building footprints for NYC and San Francisco show greater context at the zoom level. Additional cities are planned for rollout in 2007.
• Search for directions using only a point of interest (e.g., Empire State Building, Eiffel Tower).
• Redesigned interactive print page makes it easier to print and read driving directions.
• For users of our dial-up Maps, we have added many of the most popular features from our broadband version (new maps design, multi-point driving direction, one box address entry, integration of Yahoo! Local data), without sacrificing speed or performance.

Stay tuned for related news over the course of 2007, as we start to work with many of our European teams to introduce new in-country Maps sites in France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the UK. You can already take a look at Yahoo! Maps India, currently in beta, and up and running on our new platform too.

We hope you enjoy exploring the world on the new Yahoo! Maps, both globally and closer to home.

Jeremy Kreitler, Mike Lawless, Gus Maldonado, Mike Heideman, Rodney Fernandez, Ronny Choie, Jane Jao, and the Yahoo! Maps Team.

UPDATE:

Some people may not realize there are two versions of the site. The Broadband version is more feature rich, the Dialup version is most like our traditional website.

Broadband: http://maps.yahoo.com/broadband/

Dialup: http://maps.yahoo.com/dialup/