In a press release, local business data provider Localeze “announced its Enhanced Business Registry, which includes 14 million business listings, will be featured in Facebook Places.” Read more.
Localeze president Jeff Beard discussed the implications of the Facebook deal.
AdExchanger.com: What is the market opportunity that you see for Localeze?
Localeze’s market opportunity is vast. Localeze provides businesses with tools to verify, enhance and manage the identity of their local listings across the Web and offers those listings to its 100+ search platform partners (the largest network in the industry) including search engines, mobile apps, social sites, yellow pages publishers, GPS manufacturers, etc. Localeze currently provides 14 million local search business listings to partners, including nearly 600,000 verified and managed by local businesses.
Localeze plays a critical and necessary role in establishing accurate and consistent listings that are the foundation and anchor that make search interactions like restaurant reservations, social network check-ins and user reviews possible.
How do Facebook and Localeze work together?
Facebook selected Localeze to power its new Facebook Places “check-in” feature. Facebook will use Localeze’s premium business content, including nearly 600,000 business-verified and managed listings, which have been enhanced directly by local businesses, to offer accurate data for people to easily share where they are with friends on Facebook, find friends who are nearby and discover new places from a mobile device.
Can Localeze be used for ad targeting?
Localeze is not an advertising, marketing or local search platform. We primarily manage and deliver business listings information that is used by local search platforms, focusing on creating and disseminating consistent anchor identity information – Name, Address, Phone Number (NAP) – and a more descriptive enhanced identity that establishes a foundation for business listings across the local search ecosystem. Localeze works directly with businesses on an ongoing basis to ensure the accuracy and depth of information.
What about privacy concerns? How does Localeze prevent PII from being a part of the equation?
Localeze only provides public business listing information to its search engine partners (100+). Listings information is gathered from a variety of available public sources like printed directories or supplied by business themselves.
By John Ebbert
