Eitan Ackerman from Amdocs just presented “IYP Search Case Studies – A Global Tour” at the IYP SearchMeet conference. I was particularly intrigued by one of his slides that details all the activities/actions a consumer can take when looking at a Yellow Pages listing online. They are:
- Search to call: I am looking for the merchant’s phone number, often a core element of a business directory site.
- Search to book: I want to schedule an appointment or make a reservation.
- Search to purchase: I want to buy the product online (e-commerce)
- Search to navigate: I want to get to the store and I’m looking for the address, map, driving directions, etc.
- Search to additional information: I’m looking for hours of operations, brands carried, etc.
- Click to save: I want to save/bookmark the information in my personal address book for future use.
- Click to share: I want to share the merchant information with friends/contacts via e-mail, social networks, etc.
What it means: I like this categorization of activities because it tells us about potential proof of value points to measure advertising ROI. It’s also a way to look at future business models (pay-per-call, pay-per-action, transactions, etc.). Did Eitan forget anything?
(Picture from the BIA/Kelsey Web site)
Seb Provencher's Blog 
Interesting points, Seb. I think I’d only add the action of rating/commenting on YP listings. Like with Click to Share, it’s also an action that has an impact on how other consumers interact with the listing and the business, so it has some positive (or negative) residual effects.
@Matt Agreed that merchant reviews is a feature that is often available. We talked about reviews a little bit yesterday in the context of real-time content and many people now think it might be difficult to get a substantial amount of reviews in a Yellow Pages site. This is probably related to consumer purpose (very utilitarian) when they use a business directory site. It’s probably related also to the brand meaning.