[Tweeam]

If so, would you mind taking this survey? I'm doing research on if there is a need for an app that helps do "local search" ... specifically for the iPhone

Local Search ... it's like E-harmony for shoppers!

[reeko]

Didnt open the link so could be far off, but Vicinity? And google maps does a fine job and is only going to get better....

[AKA_Ben]

I sure do but unless you have a really unique way of delivering the results I don't know if you could make any headway. Maps, Loopt, etc -they all do a great job already.

[Tweeam]

I have talked to a Point-of-Sales company ... the point-of-sales systems keep track of a store's inventory :-D ... so I think I have a way to get the info out to people ;-)

[reeko]

there is a gap there, but not a gap big enough to exploit and make any money out of. if your looking at something just to fill some time / hobby then go for it.

surely keeping stores inventory logged accurately online to be accessed would not come cheap and also be extremely hard to do. i would be much happier skipping the middle man and ringing the store myself.

[Tweeam]

it would definitely not come cheap and that's the purpose of posting the survey ...

if people really are fine with ringing up stores then yeah there is no point spending the money to get it going :-(

I mean it'll get done eventually, if not by me or someone else, I'm sure Google or Microsoft will figure it out and implement it a few years from now. Just thought it'd be fun if I could do it

[reeko]

Ye it sounds like a good idea, but sounds like something google will do in the future. If they did it as a free service, which i guess they would, it would crush you straight away

[Tweeam]

lol, what makes you think I'm charging for mine? I've thought about what would happen if I was charging and then Google came out with a free one :-D

the difference I see is that if Google does it then you'll be more likely to have ads in your searches, if I do it then it'll still be free with no ads (I think I could make money selling search information to people, like results of what kind of products people are looking for, as opposed to charging people to use the product) ... Google will most definitely make their money off of ad space :-/

[reeko]

ive never noticed when using anything google a great amount of advertising?

and im just saying, i use google maps and vicinity right now to search for local services and would not pay anything to you or anyone else offering me the service of telling me about local stores and their inventories/stock levels. i just don't understand, from a business point of view, how you are looking at this idea as a good idea? or are you solely doing it as a project because of spare time or college or something?

and google have introduced traffic into the UK maps here which may have cost £££ for them, but haven't introduced any advertising to offset the cost.

[Tweeam]

I'm not trying to split hairs and I personally use Google a lot, I think Google is great ... just made a point of saying that they do advertise, those columns on the right side of the page are what I was referring to as well as the mail ads at the top (if you use Gmail)

Again I think Google does a fantastic job of internet search and all kinds of search ... what I don't think Google or anyone else has done a good job of is local product search. That's what led me to think about all this and that's what the research is for, to find out if it's just me or if other people have a problem finding certain products locally

Also, again, I don't know why you keep bringing up price because I've mentioned before that I would not charge for people to use it ... it makes absolutely no sense for ANY company to think that they could charge people for a search engine. I agree there 100%.

In terms of a business point of view, I think there are plenty of ways to look at it from a business perspective, all of that isn't important right now though because I still don't know if it's a need.

People have great business ideas all the time but a lot of them fail because there was no need for the product/service in the first place. I'll take my chances on starting a business based on a need a lot of people have as opposed to the other way around, not that you were implying either :-)

[reeko]

I wish you all the best

[Tweeam]

gracias :-)

[Tweeam]

thanks to anyone who gave feedback, here's a link to see the results in case you're interested (I always hated taking surveys and not being unable to see the results)

Survey Results