Friday, January 28, 2005

Amazon Rolls Out Visual Yellow Pages for LA

Amazon.com's A9 search engine has rolled out a new, visual yellow pages feature for the Los Angeles and other major markets. The new search combines the ability to search for businesses with actual photos of those businesses, taken at street level. Users searching for a business can not only see the storefront, but can visually "walk" up and down a street to see other businesses located in the same area. Using trucks equipped with digital cameras, GPS receivers and proprietary software, the company captured significant amounts of the Los Angeles area as well as New York City, San Francisco, Chicago, and other major cities. The feature was released along with "Click to Call" a new feature that connects a user's phone with a business, and the ability to rate and review businesses.