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Urban Mapping Convenes Local Search Summit

Posted on: Tuesday, 18 March 2008, 09:00 CDT

SAN FRANCISCO, March 18 /PRNewswire/ -- Urban Mapping, Inc., the leading provider of location-rich content for interactive applications, today announced the successful conclusion of its first-ever Local Search Summit held in Las Vegas, March 13-14 at the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino. Urban Mapping CEO Ian White conceived of the exclusive, invitation-only event to bring together the brightest minds and industry leaders from real estate, search engine marketing, mapping, classified advertising, mobile technology and other industry verticals in a non-competitive, open venue.

Billed as "part salon, part workshop," the Local Search Summit, sponsored by Urban Mapping, was designed to engage all participants in a substantive and engaging discussion on the current state of the local search, trends in the industry and its path ahead. In addition to moderated discussions and colorful dialogue between participants, the Local Search Summit format also included presentations of key research findings by industry analysts. Major topics included:

-- Geotargeting -- Fact, Fiction and Future: Current technical limitations are not well-understood, yet alternative location-knowing techniques for web and mobile-enabled devices show tremendous promise. -- User Behavior -- From keywords to categories, local search is distinct from broad web-based applications. The concepts of "where" and "when" are highly nuanced at the sub-city level, meaning traditional incumbents cannot take their position for granted. -- Mobile -- The iPhone has proven itself as a game-changer, but will it be sufficient to drive broad-based adoption of mobile applications, in particular, location-based applications? Additionally, efforts to "mobilfy" web properties do not automatically translate to success across platforms. -- Local Ad Network Economics -- Lowering the cost of sales for advertisers will serve as a boon through increased ad inventory. Local search must quickly evolve to support broad needs of advertisers.

The Local Search Summit participants included executive leadership from the following industry-leading companies and organizations: STN Labs, Marchex, Trulia, DoubleClick Performics, MapQuest, Kijiji, The Kelsey Group, AOL Search, Skyhook Wireless, Medio Systems, LocalLaunch!, Sterling Market Intelligence/Local Mobile Search, Urban Mapping, Zvents, Krillion and Placebase.

"This local search summit was a great way to drill down into key local search industry issues in an informal, open environment," said White. "It is difficult to create this sort of dynamic, but calling this the 'Davos of local search' isn't too far off the mark."

Media Note:

Representatives from attending organizations are available for comment/interview. Please contact Bob Stern of Urban Mapping at bob@urbanmapping.com

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 Stern Urban Mapping, Inc. Tel: 415-946-8170 bob@urbanmapping.com

This release was issued through eReleases(TM). For more information, visit http://www.ereleases.com.

Urban Mapping, Inc.

CONTACT: Bob Stern of Urban Mapping, Inc., +1-415-946-8170,bob@urbanmapping.com

Web site: http://www.urbanmapping.com/

Source: PRNewswire

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