Yahoo is adding Local Offers to its Local deals Web service, which is available in beta for computers, iPhones and Android handsets. Local is the answer to Facebook Deals and Groupon.
Yahoo contributed to the latest crush of local-related news Dec. 8 by making
its refreshed Yahoo Local service available in limited beta for computers and
Apple iPhone and Google Android smartphones.
Compare the
current
and
new
Yahoo Local services.
The top menu has changed from vertically listed tabs for most popular events
and maps. Gone is the old-school, del.icio.us-style tag cloud of Yahoo Buzz.
The refurbished Local Website features top picks, news, things to do
(events) and local deals. The content is derived from the community, local blog
publishers and Yahoo editors. Any local publisher can participate and
contribute content in Yahoo Local through the
Yahoo
Contributor Network.
Deals should be the biggest draw for the new Yahoo Local, with offers from
Freshguide, HomeRun, BloomSpot, Buywithme.com and other local content providers
listed down the lefthand side of the page.
Today, there are discounts on massages and other personal wellness services
and wine tastings. As is the case with leading coupon Website Groupon, each
deal has time expiration counters.
The appeal of such deals is that users will be walking around neighborhoods
with their smartphones and can cash in coupons by patronizing nearby
restaurants and stores.
These deals come from
Local Offers, the service Yahoo unveiled at the Web 2.0
Summit that lets users receive daily deals from Groupon, LivingSocial,
Coupons.com and more than a dozen other companies.
Local Offers is Yahoo's play in the local coupon game, which received a
boost from
Facebook Deals last month and a measure of added respect after
Google
failed to buy local deal king Groupon for $6 billion last
week.
Yahoo is testing the new service in 30 cities, including San
Francisco, Palo Alto, Calif.,
Mountain View, Calif.,
Sunnyvale, Calif.,
New York, Birmingham, Mich., and Royal Oak,
Mich.
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