Through a mishmash of Internet news headlines, it’s becoming obvious that the lines between local, national, and international are growing more blurred than ever.
In one example, the classifieds site Oodle is now going to help point the way to local garage sales. Drawing from over 15,000 weekly listings, American users will be able to search for sales within a certain radius and plot the results on a map.
If many people bother to list their yard sales on the site, this service could become truly useful. Instead of wasting the weekend driving randomly through neighborhoods, would-be buyers could make targeted runs. This might classify as one of those nostalgic “end-of-an-era” things, but it really seems like more of a solution to a minor nuisance.
In other news, the Suburban Newspapers of America group is trying to attract national advertisers through an online publisher ad network. They also hope to draw more local papers online with this effort. 370 of the 2,000 papers the trade association represents will be available through the network, with 152 websites between them.
The ad network is supposed to start up on June 1. It has real potential-those 152 websites get about 40 million pageviews per month, which isn’t too shabby. And advertisers may leap at the chance to reach people who might otherwise avoid their pitch. (Local newspapers generally aren’t known for their flashy ads.)
Lastly, it looks like Google Maps is expanding into some of the more remote corners of the world. Australia and New Zealand have joined the areas covered by the service. Street searches and driving directions aren’t yet at a highly usable stage, but road maps are already up.
A world market (and the maps to navigate it) may truly be forthcoming in the distant future, but in the meantime, it’s arriving one strange little chunk at a time.
Big hat tip to Searchview.
Doug is a staff writer for murdok. Visit murdok for the latest eBusiness news.
