A9’s yellow pages have storefront pictures
A9 has just launched Company > Yellow Pages on A9.com” xhref=”http://a9.com/-/company/YellowPages.jsp” mce_href=”http://a9.com/-/company/YellowPages.jsp”>yellow pages with a “block view”. You can actually see the shop you’re searching for in the online yellow pages, and then virtually walk up and down the block. It’s utterly cool.
Let’s see… this is what Kabab House and Madame K’s look like in the Amazon Yellow Pages.
Since it’s beta, it needs feedback. Here’s mine:
- Some of the GPS information does not match the street address. Some addresses are only a few steps off, but others are just not there, as if the wrong street has been photographed.
- Pictures were taken from the opposite side of the road. Too many places have been obscured by buses.
- The UI needs to be improved. The “location” box is the most visible, while the “search” box is off to the side. Took a few attempts to figure out why my searches were not working. The html / javascript view of the street and block needs much better coloring to help you understand where the street is, and which side of the road you’re looking at.
- Use yahoo maps instead of mapquest. When you click on “driving directions”, it doesn’t include your saved locations in a drop down. The map for mapquest is so blah anyway.
- I want a way to poke around a large map and see places visually - as in Microsoft Streets and Trips. Give me mouse hover for the pictures and single click to see details.
Update: I have more feedback…
Cool things:
- Users can rate the “best” image for a given location. It’ll be interesting to see what the results are once enough people start using the service.
- The “click to call business” feature.
- The “Other businesses along [street]” gizmo.
Wish list:
- Printable versions of the yellow page. After all I still don’t have an unwired web browser in my car. I’m going to be taking a printout with me.
- Mini video or flip through images or montage for driving directions. Something like turn by turn directions but using actual street images to virtually show you the route you need to take.
- A shortcut button to turn around and look at the opposite side of the street.
- When you virtually walk up and down the street, the main block image changes. It would be nice if a tooltip showed you what business you were now looking at when you hovered over the image with your mouse pointer.
- Some quick way to snap my view back to the business I searched for. I tend to walk too far up or down the road and then spend a lot of time getting my bearings again.
- Widescreen panorama of stitched together block images. Something like this.
- Know when I’m searching for a restaurant and link to its menu page on Amazon.com.
- Show compass direction and cross streets in the “other businesses” area.
Posted on January 27th, 2005 under Web • 
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