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You can't even rely on a business' website anymore, though. You have to actually call them on the phone and talk to a real person there, at the business. Too of

You can't even rely on a business' website anymore, though. You have to actually call them on the phone and talk to a real person there, at the business. Too often even the business owner doesn't have time to update their website or get the "web guy" (read: his brother in law's son) to update the website in a timely manner.

twoodfin 12y ago
If I were Google, Yelp, or Facebook, I'd give serious consideration to selling local businesses pre-created, theme-able web sites on a subscription basis. They already have essentially all the content such sites would need, and better designers than most small businesses would have access to. I regularly run into local places that use their Facebook page as their de facto virtual storefront, but that format could be much better customized for individual business varieties' needs, even putting aside the limitations of living in Facebook's garden.
- sharth 12y ago
  There are companies that exist who target that market. squarespace.com for example.
  - twoodfin 12y ago
    Yeah, but with Squarespace you actually have to do the work of building and updating your web site. I'm proposing Google, for example, use a mix of algorithms and design to expand that "info box" you get when you search for Willy's Pizza or Suds Laundromat into a full site, and sell it as a turnkey solution. "Here's your (crummy, last-updated-2011) web site today, and here's the beautiful one we've already built for you, including full online reservations and take out ordering. With just a few clicks you can customize it with photos or a new menu. Pay us $NN/month and we'll immediately switch your domain to point at this shiny new site." Squarespace could move in this direction, too, by continuing to specialize and extend its templates until a good looking, functional site takes an average of minutes. But Google has the advantage of already knowing enough about the average small business to build it a better web site in literally milliseconds.
- mike_hearn 12y ago
  They already do: Facebook and Google both have a "pages" feature which is designed for exactly that. Most businesses don't seem to want their Facebook/Google page to be their official website though, perhaps they think it looks unprofessional.
  - gnaritas 12y ago
    It is unprofessional.
    - owenmarshall 12y ago
      It's unprofessional for a restaurant or a mechanic or a pet groomer to have their Facebook/Google page as their official web presence? How can it be "unprofessional"? That's simply not their profession. Why should we judge them on that? What an odd comment.
      - gnaritas 12y ago
        It's unprofessional for any business to use a Facebook page as their website. A business that wants to appear professional has their own domain and their own presence on the web; Facebook pages are for marketing, not hosting your website. A professional presence doesn't have another company's branding all over it. Your comment is far odder than mine.
- prostoalex 12y ago
  Yelp customers don't want theme-able, if I'm browsing five restaurants closest to me to decide which ones to go to in the next 10 minutes, I want to see the type of cuisine, hours, menus, etc. in a consistent way instead of playing "find Waldo" with whatever artistic genius designed that specific theme.
  - twoodfin 12y ago
    Sure, but local businesses will still want control over their main web address. I don't think very many are confident enough to simply redirect you to their Yelp page.
    - prostoalex 12y ago
      Ah, right. Google runs a GYBO (Get Your Business Online) program doing that, down to domain name, in an effort to upsell things like GApps once the small business is ready, I'm not sure how popular it is. http://www.gybo.com/california/ http://www.gybo.com/california/
mcguire 12y ago
"You can't even rely on a business' website anymore, though. You have to actually call them on the phone and talk to a real person there, at the business." Anymore? That is the traditional way of finding that kind of information. Sure, there was a brief period of time when only technically sophisticate businesses were online, but as you say, that is no longer the case.
mark-r 12y ago
But how do you get their phone number? The same way you found their hours: Google. Checkmate.
pbhjpbhj 12y ago
A place where I work has irregular hours such that the common hours are noted but contact is requested to book and verify that the business is available. The specific industry is too small to be targeted with affordable online bookings systems and the business is on the smaller end of that. No listings sites seem to anticipate that a place can have opening hours but be "booking not always required"; indeed level of booking requirement doesn't appear to feature in any local business listings pages. This can't be that rare as another business on our short road has the same booking policy ("not always required"). I understand entirely that Google/Facebook/Yelp/etc. want to pin down strict times but an alternate string field with suggested standardised forms would seem sensible for many businesses. Thus opening times aren't entered and the only thing you can do is contact us to enquire what our policy is. It's a shortcoming of the listings database design.

twoodfin 12y ago

If I were Google, Yelp, or Facebook, I'd give serious consideration to selling local businesses pre-created, theme-able web sites on a subscription basis. They already have essentially all the content such sites would need, and better designers than most small businesses would have access to. I regularly run into local places that use their Facebook page as their de facto virtual storefront, but that format could be much better customized for individual business varieties' needs, even putting aside the limitations of living in Facebook's garden.

sharth 12y ago
There are companies that exist who target that market. squarespace.com for example.
- twoodfin 12y ago
  Yeah, but with Squarespace you actually have to do the work of building and updating your web site. I'm proposing Google, for example, use a mix of algorithms and design to expand that "info box" you get when you search for Willy's Pizza or Suds Laundromat into a full site, and sell it as a turnkey solution. "Here's your (crummy, last-updated-2011) web site today, and here's the beautiful one we've already built for you, including full online reservations and take out ordering. With just a few clicks you can customize it with photos or a new menu. Pay us $NN/month and we'll immediately switch your domain to point at this shiny new site." Squarespace could move in this direction, too, by continuing to specialize and extend its templates until a good looking, functional site takes an average of minutes. But Google has the advantage of already knowing enough about the average small business to build it a better web site in literally milliseconds.
mike_hearn 12y ago
They already do: Facebook and Google both have a "pages" feature which is designed for exactly that. Most businesses don't seem to want their Facebook/Google page to be their official website though, perhaps they think it looks unprofessional.
- gnaritas 12y ago
  It is unprofessional.
  - owenmarshall 12y ago
    It's unprofessional for a restaurant or a mechanic or a pet groomer to have their Facebook/Google page as their official web presence? How can it be "unprofessional"? That's simply not their profession. Why should we judge them on that? What an odd comment.
    - gnaritas 12y ago
      It's unprofessional for any business to use a Facebook page as their website. A business that wants to appear professional has their own domain and their own presence on the web; Facebook pages are for marketing, not hosting your website. A professional presence doesn't have another company's branding all over it. Your comment is far odder than mine.
prostoalex 12y ago
Yelp customers don't want theme-able, if I'm browsing five restaurants closest to me to decide which ones to go to in the next 10 minutes, I want to see the type of cuisine, hours, menus, etc. in a consistent way instead of playing "find Waldo" with whatever artistic genius designed that specific theme.
- twoodfin 12y ago
  Sure, but local businesses will still want control over their main web address. I don't think very many are confident enough to simply redirect you to their Yelp page.
  - prostoalex 12y ago
    Ah, right. Google runs a GYBO (Get Your Business Online) program doing that, down to domain name, in an effort to upsell things like GApps once the small business is ready, I'm not sure how popular it is. http://www.gybo.com/california/ http://www.gybo.com/california/

mcguire 12y ago

"You can't even rely on a business' website anymore, though. You have to actually call them on the phone and talk to a real person there, at the business." Anymore? That is the traditional way of finding that kind of information. Sure, there was a brief period of time when only technically sophisticate businesses were online, but as you say, that is no longer the case.

mark-r 12y ago

But how do you get their phone number? The same way you found their hours: Google. Checkmate.

pbhjpbhj 12y ago

A place where I work has irregular hours such that the common hours are noted but contact is requested to book and verify that the business is available. The specific industry is too small to be targeted with affordable online bookings systems and the business is on the smaller end of that. No listings sites seem to anticipate that a place can have opening hours but be "booking not always required"; indeed level of booking requirement doesn't appear to feature in any local business listings pages. This can't be that rare as another business on our short road has the same booking policy ("not always required"). I understand entirely that Google/Facebook/Yelp/etc. want to pin down strict times but an alternate string field with suggested standardised forms would seem sensible for many businesses. Thus opening times aren't entered and the only thing you can do is contact us to enquire what our policy is. It's a shortcoming of the listings database design.