Since the creation of Boston-based CitySquares.com in 2005, the company’s mission has been focused on the “representation of your neighborhood,” says co-founder Ben Saren. This is apparent through their dedication to not only helping consumers, but local businesses as well.
What makes CitySquares really stand out in the local search market though, are the services it offers.
“We are not just a directory,” says Saren, and he couldn’t be more right. The company also provides local businesses with the ability to create their own profiles on the site, which is very useful to businesses without the resources to build their own Web sites. Along with a profile, they also offer SEO services, and on-site advertising to the same local businesses.
If you think about all the small business owners out there who are completely wrapped up with their day-to-day operations, it’s easy to see the service CitySquares is providing. According to Saren, about one-third of online searches are done to find local places and things.
Beyond what CitySquares is already doing for local business owners, the company is adding more. CitySquares will soon be incorporating new technology resulting from its recent acquisition of Yokel, a local search service that allows users to find the closest store with the specific product they’re trying to find.
CitySquares acquired Yokel in mid-January and has been working to integrate that technology with what they already had. This could create a very unique and useful product: a powerful local search engine with the ability to find the best local businesses that also carry a specific product you are looking for.
I asked Saren what he thought about a CitySquares mobile application, and while his answer surprised me some, it also reminded me how much growth is on the horizon for mobile technologies.
He told me that while they had talked about it extensively, he and co-founder Bob Leland believe that right now the technology and development of local search applications for mobile is not very advanced. There is a crowded market of local search applications, but none really stand out.
Unless a company like CitySquares can bring game-changing technology, it will just be white noise. So, wisely, CitySquares is focusing on their web strategy, constantly improving their services, and not letting their core product fall behind by shifting focus to the development of a mobile application.
CitySquares is based in Boston’s South End. Originally SideWalk.com, a local search engine started in 1995, the company was sold to InterActiveCorp and became CitySquares. A few years later Saren and Leland got fed up with trying to use Google for local search, recognized the market need, bought the CitySquares domain, and re-invented it.
Some of CitySquares’ key investors include Mark Cuban, the flamboyant Dallas Mavericks owner, and Jonathon Kraft, President of the Kraft Group. For more on the company’s history, check out this post from Saren’s blog.
Max Silver is a senior marketing communications major at Emerson College. He’s a Twitter junkie and loves all things realtime. For more of his work, check out TheNextGreatGeneration.com, as well as his personal blog. Follow him on Twitter @maxesilver and find him on Linkedin. He loves connecting with people and talking tech, start up and social media.
