PremierGuide Adds Local Web Search

PremierGuide, which provides technology to newspapers and yellow pages players to help them compete with search engines, has added local Web search to its platform.

The technology crawls Web sites with local information — such as newspapers, local coupon sites, local restaurant sites and local business sites — and then blends those results with its directory information. To determine what local sites should be crawled, PremierGuide starts with the URLs in its directory listings, then adds any other notable sources of local information. The idea is to provide more comprehensive results for local searches and provide a viable alternative to search engines.

“We believe that consumers should be able to search their local yellow pages directory, classifieds, coupons, newspaper ads, restaurant reviews and any other local content from a single search box,” said Malcolm Lewis, president and CEO of PremierGuide.

The company recently added social networking functionality to its platform, allowing users to see friends’ ratings of local businesses.

PremierGuide’s clients include independent yellow pages publishers, local newspapers, local TV stations, city portals and vertical portals. These companies are struggling to move their advertisers online and stave off competition from search engines whose ambitions increasingly include local offerings.