August 05, 2005
From the morning mailbox
Some interesting things flew into my mailbox overnight. So here they are:
Google Local
Do you have a bricks & Mortar store that you've always wanted to get into Google Local so that folks from your area can find you? Now you definitely can and it won't cost you a dime.Two ways to go about it.
If you have 10 or more store locations they want you to use their Froogle feed capability. The details are in the Froogle Merchant Center, and if you're not familiar with creating a Froogle feed, some general instructions are here.
If you're a small business with less than 10 store locations you can submit your info directly to the Goole Local Business Center.
With both you control exactly what is displayed.
Yahoo Audio Search
I got an email last night from Toby Elliot of the Yahoo! Developer Network pointing out that Y! now has Yahoo! Audio Search in beta testing. Basically it'll allow you to search through the 50 million plus audio files that are out there on the 'Net. Music, speeches, interviews, sounds effects, podcasts, etc. If it's audio they want it!
If you're a producer of audio files you can even submit them to be included via Yahoo! Media (RSS) Feeds.
I got the email from Toby because I'm involved with the API side of things and in conjunction with the beta search launch they're also launching an Audio Search API. I've not tinkered with it at all, but from everything I read this morning at the above link and the Audio API Documentation pages, this new API is actually going to be more powerful and more flexible than the front end is!
This last bit is a very important development. To my knowledge it's the first time an API has been issued by any of the search engines that actually gives developers to extend their applications beyond what the search engine itself already offers. Sure other API's could be developed that gather information and display relationships/information differently, but never before have you been able to do something with an API that couldn't be done via normal search.
Cool beans Yahoo crew! Well done!
Hopefully others will follow your lead on the API front.