Google any product(books,gadgets,automobiles..),service(web hosting ,restaurant…..) or anything else you can think of and you will find a battery of comparison websites,letting you compare various aspects of a service such as price,specifications,features and related stuff.
But there are many neglected local services for which most of such JAPC sites never bother and refuse to take any pains for placing them in their catalogue.For instance,comparisons for services such as Lasik surgery centres,Home alarms,teeth cleaning etc aren’t there in abundance on web and if you love details about everything then you are likely to remain disappointed with the results.
Such services are mostly provided by local business owners,who are still to reach web and many times don’t even have a website to portray their business details.Many such local businesses’s 4 page site remains so deeply buried on the search results that hardly anyone gets to reach them.
Any solution….?
LocalPrice,atleast for Atlanta.It’s an atlanta based web service that allows people to compare and shop online for local services.It’s currently offering 20 types of Atlanta based services for comparison(many comparisons are a bit hard to find elsewhere).
If there’s Yelp for me already then why LocalPrice ?
Unlike Yelp,YellowPages and other sites offering subjective consumer reviews,LocalPrice compares providers based on the objective criteria relevant to each service category.For instance,someone considering LASIK surgery can find reviews on many sites,but LocalPrice provides comparisons of surgeons based on price, number of procedures performed,whether he’s fellowship trained, the method & equipment used, whether he’ll be involved in pre/post operative exams and the details of the re-treatment warranty.Good stuff to know before you have a guy shoot a laser into your eyes.
In near future,LocalPrice is looking to expand its domain from Atlanta to other major US cities(targeting 40 cities in US) and cover more categories(around 100) apart from the current catalogue.
Any Holes ?
- For now,the service is only limited to Atlanta,that also to a set of 20 services only,which leaves a very limited market for LocalPrice to capture.
- They have tried to be distinct in this ‘JAPC’ arena by showcasing relatively uncommon services but still,few marketleaders such as Yelp,Yellowpages,Shopping.com etc are already on hit list for millions of users and therefore,the competition is more than just fierce.
- They aren’t utilizing the power of ‘Crowdsourcing’.Every visitor to their site might just add another personal experience to the site(similar to what happens in Yelp and others) but LocalPrice isn’t taking the advantage of it.Going in precise details is good but ignoring useful and free user submissions isn’y ideal at all.