Top Minds in Local Search Gather to Discuss Industry Trends and Strategy

 

    SAN FRANCISCO, March 18 -- Urban Mapping, Inc., the
leading provider of location-rich content for interactive applications,
today announced the successful conclusion of its first-ever Local Search
Summit held in Las Vegas, March 13-14 at the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino.
Urban Mapping CEO Ian White conceived of the exclusive, invitation-only
event to bring together the brightest minds and industry leaders from real
estate, search engine marketing, mapping, classified advertising, mobile
technology and other industry verticals in a non-competitive, open venue.

    Billed as "part salon, part workshop," the Local Search Summit,
sponsored by Urban Mapping, was designed to engage all participants in a
substantive and engaging discussion on the current state of the local
search, trends in the industry and its path ahead. In addition to moderated
discussions and colorful dialogue between participants, the Local Search
Summit format also included presentations of key research findings by
industry analysts. Major topics included:



    -- Geotargeting -- Fact, Fiction and Future: Current technical limitations
    are not well-understood, yet alternative location-knowing techniques for
    web and mobile-enabled devices show tremendous promise.

    -- User Behavior -- From keywords to categories, local search is distinct
    from broad web-based applications.  The concepts of "where" and "when" are
    highly nuanced at the sub-city level, meaning traditional incumbents
    cannot take their position for granted.

    -- Mobile -- The iPhone has proven itself as a game-changer, but will it
    be sufficient to drive broad-based adoption of mobile applications, in
    particular, location-based applications?  Additionally, efforts to
    "mobilfy" web properties do not automatically translate to success across
    platforms.

    -- Local Ad Network Economics -- Lowering the cost of sales for
    advertisers will serve as a boon through increased ad inventory.  Local
    search must quickly evolve to support broad needs of advertisers.
    The Local Search Summit participants included executive leadership from
the following industry-leading companies and organizations: STN Labs,
Marchex, Trulia, DoubleClick Performics, MapQuest, Kijiji, The Kelsey
Group, AOL Search, Skyhook Wireless, Medio Systems, LocalLaunch!, Sterling
Market Intelligence/Local Mobile Search, Urban Mapping, Zvents, Krillion
and Placebase.

    "This local search summit was a great way to drill down into key local
search industry issues in an informal, open environment," said White. "It
is difficult to create this sort of dynamic, but calling this the 'Davos of
local search' isn't too far off the mark."

    ABOUT URBAN MAPPING, INC.

    Urban Mapping's location-rich Urbanware products enhance the value of
local content for interactive platforms and optimized local search. The
company's flagship product, Urbanware(TM) Neighborhoods, is a database of
informal space and is used by all major portals, map platforms and Internet
yellow page publishers, including Microsoft's Virtual Earth, Idearc's
SuperPages.com, MapQuest and AT&T's YellowPages.com. Urban Mapping also
offers a database of mass transit systems and a novel geotargeting solution
focused on the needs of local search. For more information about Urban
Mapping, visit http://www.urbanmapping.com or call 415.946.8170.