The new Yahoo! Listing may also generate more traffic to Yahoo’s other services for businesses. Besides web hosting Yahoo can also help provide methods for companies to become online merchants, set up domain names, manage company email, manage company broadband internet access, and help find new recruits for job openings via HotJobs. AOL, MSN, and Google don’t yet seem to have a large program to offer businesses as Yahoo does. While Google doesn’t have all of these services, it has introduced a business listing service alarmingly similar to Yahoo’s. The creation forms request the same information and it follows a very similar four-step process: create listing, categorize, preview, submit.
Unlike Yahoo, Google isn’t offering any accompanying service that requires a fee, nor is it offering a free 5-page website. It is simply directory space, but valuable nevertheless. Interested businesses should definitely make sure they have listings on both of these major search engines, especially since both have made their local searches accessible through mobile devices.
The Yahoo! Listing website may seem considerably less robust than customized e-commerce websites, but that shouldn’t rule them out for everyone. If your business is looking to make a debut on the web and it sounds like Yahoo’s new offerings would be adequate for now. The service will probably not be a bad transitional tool to get on the web. The newly introduced listing service may assist small or new companies who want more ad space or would simply like the ability to change their current listing in Yahoo’s local directories. Drop by http://listings.local.yahoo.com, and it also wouldn’t hurt to make sure you have a listing in Google by going to http://www.google.com/local/add. For a decent web page though, look elsewhere.
Search Engine News 
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