Talk:Mobile local search

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Is it appropriate to name major service providers, software vendors etc. in an article of this nature? Most of them have entries in Wikipedia, but somehow it sounds like advertising ... —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Aymatth2 (talk • contribs) 22:42, 26 January 2007 (UTC)

If the providers, vendors, etc have Wikipedia articles, it's generally ok to add references to them, for example "Some major providers and vendors include [[Some Company 1]], [[Some Company 2]]". On the other hand, these sections often turn into spambait, attracting external links and companies that don't have articles... so it's sort of a use your best judgment thing. --AbsolutDan ^(talk) 17:24, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

Still not entirely comfortable, but I have added a partial list of service providers that have Wikipedia articles. I don't know if this adds much value - almost all carriers, DA providers etc. offer some sort of MoLo service. Also added an alphabetical list of software companies, only three of whom had created Wikipedia entries for themselves. I suppose someone really interested in the subject may want to look them up on the web and get an idea of the kind of things they are doing - a lot of interesting and different approaches. This really is an area where there is a huge amount of innovation going on. Aymatth2 18:37, 27 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Unverifiable Information

Moved the following entry here because it's unverifiable and likely dated information:

"To make this possible, mobile local search services rely on well-structured directories, as opposed to the creative anarchy of the web. An entry for a business will be stored under a category heading, will include standard data elements such as latitude and longitude coordinates, name, address and telephone number, and may include structured data under sub-headings such as hours of opening, directions, payment methods and so on. An entry for a movie will also be stored in a well-defined data structure showing which cinemas are playing the movie and at what times. Mobile local search services are thus more like information portals such as AOL or Yahoo! than like search engines such as Google."

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (July 2007)

--Searchmaven 20:27, 9 July 2007 (UTC)