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Marketing and research specialist Infogroup, a provider of local business listings and points of interest (POI) data for navigation, local search and location-based service applications, announced that its ExpressUpdate service now offers local and national businesses the opportunity to include additional information in their business listings. ExpressUpdate provides a single-step process for both Infogroup data partners and local businesses to add and update their business listings for distribution to Infogroup’s network of outlets, including the top search engines, navigation devices and 411 services.
Infogroup’s additional fields of enhanced content are designed to meet the growing demands of consumers for business details such as social media links, business descriptions, products and services, keywords, photos, logos and more. The additional fields offer businesses the ability to include more information for popular search categories such as hotels (pet friendly, kitchens, shuttle, pool, etc.); restaurants (price range, dress code, valet parking, etc.); golf courses (number of holes, caddy service, private/public, etc.); service stations (fuel types, diesel exhaust fluid, electric charging stations, etc.); and others.
According to a company release, Infogroup powers the top five search engines, 90 percent of in-car navigation systems in North America, and the sales and marketing systems in 85 percent of Fortune 100 companies. In addition, Infogroup’s research is the provider of insight driven results and is the provider of the CNN/Opinion Research Corporation Poll.
Jim DeRouchey, president of the Infogroup’s licensing division, said 95 percent of business owners submitting data via Infogroup’s ExpressUpdate service provide enhanced content like hours of operation and credit cards accepted. “Additionally, approximately 7,500 SMBs have registered to add or update their business listings,” he said. “These businesses know that Infogroup can help them reach new customers by providing a single point of entry to a broad network of key partners in local search, Internet Yellow Pages and navigation markets.”
Earlier this year, the company announced an agreement with Twitter that helps businesses link tweets to Infogroup POI data. Under the new agreement, Infogroup’s search, navigation and other partners can use Infogroup’s persistent ID numbers to post and receive tweets driven by Twitter Places, Twitter’s geolocation feature. In addition, local businesses will be able to add their Twitter Handles and other social media user names directly to the Infogroup business database via Infogroup’s innovative ExpressUpdate technology, which empowers businesses to search, edit, verify, add or enhance their Infogroup business records online.