Situation 1 Tina and George Showalter opened the Blonde Bear Bed & Breakfast in Kenai, Alaska, in 2005. According to Tina, “Our first summer, we did great with word-of-mouth advertising, and then we got involved in the Internet, and it has pretty much exploded from there.” In this town with a population of under 10,000, 50 businesses signed up with MerchantCircle.com, a local business listing service. The site provides business descriptions, reviews, blogs, coupons, maps, and links among the companies. The cross-promotional and networking benefits have proven valuable to the businesses on the site.
1. What businesses do you think would benefit most from being on a local website in your hometown?
2. How do businesses that provide such local Web services differ from newspapers and Yellow Pages?