What is buzz.com?
buzz.com is the newest local search experience developed by AT&T Interactive that helps users tap their existing social networks (starting with Facebook) for local recommendations. Talking about the best places to go or best businesses to work with is a conversation that is already happening online. Think of buzz.com as social bookmarking for your local world.

Check out this video for a taste of the user experience:

Our internal group of alpha testers gave us a lot of valuable feedback, and although we are still in the process of addressing feedback by tweaking the user interface and adding features, we think it is time for input from a much wider base of users. That’s why we’re opening the site – by invitation only – to external users now. We’re hoping the feedback will reinforce the functions before we begin promoting buzz.com more widely.

How do I get an invite?
If you’re interested in joining, sign up on buzz.com to receive an invite as we expand access. We hope to share some invites with our Beta Labs readers, too, so stay tuned.

As we get more feedback from users and continue to build out the experience, we’ll keep you posted here on our latest updates or follow us on Twitter and Facebook .

Let’s say you just went to a really terrific local restaurant you found through YELLOWPAGES.COM and you want to tell your friends about it. Well, now you can share details about the business on Facebook, Twitter, Digg, Delicious and StumbleUpon through our Email & Share feature.

In the following video, AT&T Interactive Senior Product Manager Steven Lee gives a great informative demo on the feature.

Look for the “Email & Share” link on each YELLOWPAGES.COM listing. We invite you to try it out and share your feedback!

Roger Park
Blog Editor

“People generally trust online reviews more than critic reviews and editorials. They want to read what other people thought about a business, learn why others rated a business highly or poorly, and get a better idea of whether they want to use that particular business or not. Ratings and reviews help a user differentiate between businesses that otherwise seem very similar.

On YELLOWPAGES.COM and yp.com we allow users to rate businesses on a scale of 1-5 stars and write a review of their experience with a business. We also aggregate reviews from other sites to increase the number of ratings and reviews that we provide to our users.

On the yp.com site, we use the reviews to help provide relevant results. If many users are praising a restaurant’s lasagna in their reviews, then that business may be a better match for a user searching for “lasagna” than other Italian restaurants

We filter reviews* for violations of our specific guidelines, such as profanity, slander, or spam. If a user writes an honest, factual review of a bad experience they had with a business, then that review will remain on our sites. We can’t control everything, but the more real users we have reviewing each business, the less impact fake reviews will have.

We present the reviews in order of review date. Recent experience with a business is most relevant to how the business is performing now, helping a user make a decision on which business to use.

We recognize the importance of including businesses in the ratings and reviews process. We allow businesses to reply directly on the site to each review so business owners can have an open dialogue with their customers for positive or negative reviews. This dialogue between consumers and the business can be very valuable to everyone. And, since we recognize that some businesses are also concerned about the quality of reviews we do allow businesses to opt out of reviews altogether. However, as online reviews are extremely valuable and important to consumers, the vast majority of businesses do allow users to review their business.

There are many prizes available during our Review2Win Sweepstakes, so take this opportunity to provide very valuable insight into local businesses that you love or hate. Your voice will be heard by our large user base and may help your neighbors make good decisions on which local businesses to use.

Watch for new innovations with our Ratings and Reviews feature in the future. We are currently in the process of developing new functionality which we plan to introduce in 2010. Of course, if you have any ideas that you’d like to see on the site, just drop us a note. All ideas are welcome!

Nicholas Perry
Sr Product Manager

* “We are under no obligation to monitor any reviews; however, we reserve the right, in our sole discretion, to monitor, edit and/or remove any reviews for any reason, investigate possible violations of our User Review guidelines, and enforce any rights available to us as a result of any such violation.”

With the widget consumers can easily check hotel rates and availability, and book a room. If users find their favorite hotel completely booked for their vacation dates, they can also search for other options through the widget.

Traveling during the holidays can be stressful, so relax while you’re planning: slip into your favorite flannel jammies, get a cup of hot cocoa and use the YELLOWPAGES.COM hotel rates and availability search widget to help plan your trip. Afterwards, drop us a note and let us know how it worked (the widget, not the cocoa). This is just our first phase, so stay tuned for more from your Hotels Vertical Team.

Steven Lee
Sr. Product Manager for Hotels Vertical

* PhoCusWright’s U.S. Online Travel Overview Ninth Edition

Watch the video, try the site – and let us know what you did or didn’t like.

Stephen is here at the office in Glendale so we can always put him in front of the camera if you need more info.

An Interview with Neil Symes - Director of Data Management

ca•non•i•cal (kə-nŏn’ĭ-kəl)
1. Of, relating to, or required by canon law.
2. Of or appearing in the biblical canon.
3. Conforming to orthodox or well-established rules or patterns, as of procedure.
source:
www.thefreedictionary.com

One of our jobs as a local search engine is to provide accurate and up-to-date information – including business telephone numbers. This sounds like a simple, straight forward proposition, but it is not. In fact, this is extremely difficult due to the complicated relationship between businesses and their telephone numbers. Our Director of Data Management, Neil Symes, spends a great deal of effort pursuing the holy grail of the canonical phone number.

Q: Can you give me a brief description of what we call a “Canonical” phone number?
A: Well, in a nutshell, it’s the actual phone number for that business. When we list a business, we want the phone number to be the ACTUAL phone number the person will need to call to reach the business, not their fax number or back office number.

Q: Why is this data difficult to obtain?
A: There are many, many reasons this is problematic. There are toll free numbers, call tracking numbers, fax numbers, even businesses with multiple numbers in multiple area codes. In addition, a business may have a primary line with hundreds of extensions. These extensions may have direct dial capability as well. So “what is the phone number” for a business, person, or department at a business is extremely complex. The control of phone numbers is split between the traditional Telcos, wireless providers and VOIP so obtaining a standard across the industry for reporting the canonical phone number could be a challenge. With canonical web addresses, the control and benefit are both in control of the website owner; with telephone numbers, the control is within the various telephone service providers and advertising agencies, with the benefits going to the search engines. Even within the Telcos they have difficulty tracking this information. For example, phone numbers are recycled / reassigned quickly when a business closes its doors. In some drastic circumstances this can occur in a 30 day period.

Q: What other challenges are there?
A: Mobile numbers have added an entirely new dimension to the data accuracy question, as they do not point to a location, but to a person. There are also situations where a national business will want different phone numbers displayed, such as a national number on a search results page, but a local number on a MIP (More Information Page).

Q: Is this a problem for all search engines?
A: This is mainly a problem for Local Search web sites. A typical search engine brings back a list of relevant websites, but in local search we bring back a list of relevant businesses and their telephone number. In this context it’s important to note that not all businesses have websites, but most do have a telephone number. Determining the right telephone number for a business is crucial for local search. This isn’t an easy problem to solve, but we apply innovative technology and our deep understanding of businesses and their use of telephone numbers to develop solutions. Are we perfect? No, but the reality is – no one has perfectly solved this problem. We are always looking for better solutions and would love to hear from other “students of the canonical phone number” how to be even better.