e-Newsletter February 2009

At Planet Discover, we take pride in providing our clients with the best possible search experience through relevant content, fast performance and flexible integration options. These efforts are showcased with the release of our next generation integrated search. Our new technology ensures your search solution offers features that will make your site the preferred source of everything local for users and advertisers.

Just imagine:

• Combining all of your data sources into a single, comprehensive display that provides the most relevant results regardless of their type;
• Being able to analyze keyword searches performed on your site and tailoring the results to the local information your users need;
• Working with a partner that lets you control the presentation of your results and change them, add new pages, or even test new presentation ideas;
• Having the ability to place search widgets, advertising, or search results outside the search results page, wherever you choose within your site;
• Being able to integrate difficult-to-manage content that is not available in feeds without slowing down your search pages.

The Planet Discover next generation search does all of this.

Blended Content
By using our proprietary software platform, Search Publisher, Planet Discover can now take multiple content sources provided by our clients regardless of how different they are – events, news, movies – and provide a single, comprehensive results display with relevancy determined among all feeds. There are no modules, no confusion…simply the most relevant local content is returned for your Website visitors.

The Most Relevant Results
Prefer your content organized into logical groups? You can easily configure your results to appear in category modules. The user is just one click away from focused, source-specific content.

Planet Discover now provides an industry-leading next generation customization to our search results display, allowing your Website visitors to find exactly what they are looking for when they need it most.

The search experience is no longer a passive experience left up to a search algorithm – we've taken it to the next level. Your users' activity will be analyzed in order to tailor search results. If your users search for local news content 50% of the time, events 25% of the time, and classifieds 15% of the time, our next generation technology allows you to boost News results, making them twice as relevant as events, which would be almost twice as relevant as classifieds. Your results will reflect exactly what your users want to see.

You Take Control
It's your Website's local search. You should have the option to present it according to your vision. Using a style sheet provided by Planet Discover, you control colors, fonts, spacing and backgrounds. You can change styles quickly and easily, or stage new styles and preview them prior to switching – no coordination with Planet Discover is required. You choose the style sheet, include it in the URL and our technology does the rest. Whether you want one version of your search results page or 200 individually styled pages, the control is in your hands.

Widget Flexibility
We know that one of the biggest challenges in getting the information or advertising in the hands of your users is getting them to the right pages. That issue is solved in our next generation technology. After working with you to implement your search and help you choose your widgets – directory results, advertisements, ratings – Planet Discover will provide instant links to specialized widget content.

Do you want a movies widget on your entertainment guide? Drop the link on your page and you have it instantly. Do you want rotating text ads on your home page? Place the link on your page and you have it instantly.

Fast Performance
Using our screen scraping technology, Planet Discover has always specialized in providing content that's hard to incorporate into local search. Until now there have been performance implications with external searches. Now difficult searches load independently and appear as they are available, but do not have an impact on the rest of your content. This translates to a faster user experience.

Our goal remains the same – we want to help you Get Results. Our next generation integrated search does just that. Please contact your Client Services representative or email us at support@planetdiscover.com to discuss how our next generation integrated search will help you stand out in this extremely competitive market.

Back to Top

Now, more than ever, the Internet is the preferred source for local event information. The Planet Discover Events system is another way you can ensure your site is the first stop for visitors, and keeps them coming back for the information they want to find.

With a new, fresh look, the Planet Discover Events system supports user– and publisher–submitted content, along with events from sources provided by our clients. A censored word filter and spell check ensure the integrity of your site's information.

The core Planet Discover search platform, Search Publisher, provides comprehensive management and administrative control of content: from approving descriptions, images, venues, neighborhoods, categories, and featured events, to appearance and user registrations. The administration area also provides the capability to export event content for print publication.

Because the Events system is integrated with Search Publisher, deployment is straight-forward and simple, making it easy to create a dynamic, online environment for your local community. The ability to search events by category, date or location, view a map of the event venue and get driving directions provides the information visitors are looking for on your site. Users can even post photographs and rate events.

We've redesigned the Planet Discover Events system to make it easier for people to find what's going on in their local area. The contemporary interface allows you to highlight featured events, browse events by category, and keeps visitors coming back to your site.

In the near future, we will be incorporating revenue generating opportunities for the Events system. Stay tuned for more information on these upcoming additions.

As always, our goal is to help you position your site as the preferred source for everything local. Contact your Client Services representative or email us at support@planetdiscover.com to find out how the Planet Discover Events system can help you Get Results.

Back to Top

Estimates indicate that two-thirds of Americans go online to find local goods and services. Leveraging our success in local search, Planet Discover introduces Marketplace, the newest version of our online business directory.

Now you can provide value-added online features that help ensure local customers find your advertisers, drive traffic to their websites and physical locations, and increase your online revenue.

With preferred search results placement, enhanced Marketplace listings provide local businesses with valuable online exposure. Enhanced listings also include features – such as a company logo, photos, expanded business information, ratings and reviews – designed to help consumers make informed purchasing decisions.

The Marketplace allows local consumers to browse listings by keyword or categories that are important to them. To provide additional value for local advertisers, category-specific landing pages include featured businesses and recent business reviews. This gives you more opportunities to provide site visitors with the local information they are looking for at the right time.

Using Marketplace is simple for your local consumers, and creating enhanced listings is easy for advertisers. Advertisers have access to the secure Planet Discover Marketing Center to manage their directory presence. Enhanced listings can be updated as often as needed to ensure consumers have access to the timely information about local businesses. The Marketing Center also provides advertisers with reporting to help them gauge the effectiveness of their enhanced listings and optimize their online advertising strategy.

Finding ways to increase online revenue isn't as hard as you think. Let us show you how to Get Results with local Marketplace.

Email us at support@planetdiscover.com or contact your Client Services representative or to find out how Planet Discover can help you become the preferred source of everything local.

Back to Top