Seattle’s Zoodango is relaunching today as a hyperlocal search engine aimed at helping consumers find businesses and venues near their location. Formerly a social network for professionals, its founder James Sun was a former runner-up on Donald Trump’s “The Apprentice”.
At first glance, Zoodango doesn’t seem to be any different that Google Maps, Citysearch, or Yelp. But the company claims it has several key features that make it different. First of all, searches are not keyword-based; results are based on location, whether it be your city, ZIP code, or physical address. Zoodango says keyword-based searches required a consumer to be familiar with the brand they’re looking for. In turn, this requires extensive brand marketing by businesses. With location search, consumers have the ability to browse through businesses in their general vicinity, not only enabling more choices for the consumer, but a better chance for local businesses to gain exposure without significant dollar investment.
Competitors such as Yelp, says Zoodango, also have a place/business rating system based solely on a consumer rated 1 to 5 scale. You can probably immediately see the problem here. For example, several restaurants in the same geographical area all get a 4 out of 5. Which one is the best? Zoodango uses a comparative scoring engine that automatically rates and ranks a venue’s popularity on a scale of 1 to 10 after being compared to similar businesses in its area. Using computer intelligence helps businesses achieve a ranking that filters out the fluff and conflicting reviews.
Zoodango’s “intelligent location system” is up and running today in Seattle, Spokane, Portland, San Francisco and Oakland.
