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June 26, 2005
Google Local A Lifesaver But Can't Replace Local Knowledge
I was working out of town this last week without the benefit of working out of a sister office location. As it turned out, I needed to be get colour printing done for some focus groups we were working and didn't have much time to get it done.
Anyhow, a few minutes in Google local and I knew where to find a nearby print shop. PDFs were emailed and I ran over to pick them up. But I wanted to get them mounted and the print place couldn't turn that around in 15 minutes. So, it was the friendly guy that ran the print shop that pointed me in the direction of a local craft store a few blocks away. I hailed a cab, grabbed what I needed a was back to the hotel room a few minutes later and got everything ready for the focus group.
Google Local with a little local help made it all come together.
Also, in anticipation of a late evening, post-work libation, I had done search for a local establishment using "bar" as a keyword. A few things presented themselves, but nothing really promising close by popped out at me.
(Thank goodness that there is some reference links other me and my other male, middle-aged, married colleague and I may have ended up at the local lesbian-themed establishment. I should read a little deeper in the Prism part of the name, I guess.)
Anyhow, after walking around a little we were directed to a really cool little pub. We got a little lost and got a better set of directions once we got closer and finally found it. And it was a really neat little place, I'm so glad we found it.
Unfortunately for my search, the word restaurant appears in the name of the place - the sign reads The Sherlock Holmes Restaurant - instead of bar. That's great for not highlighting big bar tabs on the expense form, but it's lousy for find using a keyword driven search engine.
So, here's the conclusion I drew: Google Local can get you going in the right direction quickly, but there's no replacement for chatting up local people to really dig in to the local expertise and resources.
Posted by Derek Leverington at June 26, 2005 9:44 AM
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