Urban Mapping Launches Geotargeting Platform and Publisher Solution for Local Search

Urban Mapping Launches Geotargeting Platform and Publisher Solution for Local
Search
The Urban Mapping GeoMods Solution Can Help Search Marketers Substantially
Increase the Effectiveness of Locally Targeted Online Advertising

SAN FRANCISCO, April 17 /PRNewswire/ -- Urban Mapping, Inc., the leading
provider of location-rich content for interactive applications, today
announced general availability of GeoMods, a geotargeting technology platform
and publisher solution focused on local search. Leveraging Urban Mapping's
expertise in geodata collection, GeoMods leverages search queries to deliver
more geographically relevant results for users. As a result, search
marketers, publishers and advertisers can utilize the Urban Mapping GeoMods
platform to dramatically increase the effectiveness of online advertising
through paid search and search engine optimization (SEO).
"This geotargeting platform is a radical departure from traditional
IP-based geotargeting," said Ian White, Urban Mapping CEO. "It has been
proven again and again that traditional geotargeting does not provide a high
degree of confidence for local search, where granularity is of paramount
importance -- blocks, not ZIP codes or metropolitan areas, matter."
Based on an analysis of search log data, Urban Mapping estimates that
approximately .05% of total search queries use ZIP code-based searches.
Approximately 2% of all search queries use a neighborhood term and about 5% of
all queries use a city or state name. The effort invested in searching by
postal codes, however, seems misguided, relative to the forty-fold greater
likelihood of searching by neighborhood name.
"It's clear there's tremendous opportunity in local search since 7% of
total searches is a sizable number, yet few have made an effort to exploit
it," White said. "Local means aggregating massive amounts of geographic data
and reaping the benefits of the long tail."
Urban Mapping's GeoMods platform utilizes standard web protocols and
serves geographic terms relevant to a specified area. A separate module
provides a custom service area based on a variety of demographic, spatial and
business factors. GeoMods also leverages the installed user base of its
neighborhoods boundary database, providing many of the same geographic
keywords that power search portals, Internet yellow pages and mapping
platforms.
Designed with existing campaign management tools in mind, queries can be
made in a variety of methods -- point-radius, address, custom area and other
geographic parameters -- all via the GeoMods API. Organizations can leverage
Urban Mapping's geospatial capabilities without having to develop them
internally, quickly deploying enhanced geotargeting capabilities.
Urban Mapping's GeoMods services includes US, Canadian and European
coverage.
Urban Mapping is the leading provider of neighborhood data. Customers
include SuperPages.com, YellowPages.com, MapQuest, Microsoft's Live Search,
Ask.com and other leading portals. By leveraging its installed base of users
for the company's neighborhood boundary database product, Urban Mapping is
able to support advertisers and publishers for best-practices in local search
optimization.
ABOUT URBAN MAPPING, INC.
Urban Mapping's location-rich Urbanware products enhance the value of
local content for interactive platforms and optimized local search. The
company's flagship product, Urbanware(TM) Neighborhoods, is a database of
informal space and is used by all major portals, map platforms and Internet
yellow page publishers, including Microsoft's Virtual Earth, Idearc's
SuperPages.com, MapQuest and AT&T's YellowPages.com. Urban Mapping also
offers a database of mass transit systems and a novel geotargeting solution
focused on the needs of local search. For more information about Urban
Mapping, visit http://www.urbanmapping.com or call 415.946.8170.
Urban Mapping and Urbanware are trademarks of Urban Mapping, Inc.

Contact:
Bob Allan
Urban Mapping, Inc.
Tel: 415-946-8170 x88
bob@urbanmapping.com

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SOURCE Urban Mapping, Inc.

Bob Allan of Urban Mapping, Inc., +1-415-946-8170 ext. 88,
bob@urbanmapping.com