Yahoo! launches local sites for Indian cities

The local pages are available for users in Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Bangalore

Yahoo! India has launched Yahoo! Local (local.yahoo.in), a site which has local information for four cities in India: Delhi and the NCR, Mumbai, Chennai and Bangalore.

The sites will have a mix of content from Yahoo’s content team and users. Apart from listings in categories such as restaurants, pubs, shopping malls and health and fitness centres, the site for each city also has location specific information. For example, there’s a page dedicated to Karol Bagh in Delhi, which lists its popular hangouts and other useful information.

Yahoo! Local also features maps which pinpoint the location of almost every listing on the site.

Users can contribute to the site through restaurant reviews and ratings, adding or editing business listings and marking a location on the map.

The Yahoo! Local information is also available on Yahoo’s mobile products, Yahoo! oneSearch and Yahoo! Go.

Speaking at the launch, Sridhar Ranganathan, business head, local and maps, Yahoo! India, said Yahoo! is currently offering the listings free for businesses and users, but plans to provide paid services to merchants in the future.

Ranganathan added that the listings on the site are verified in multiple ways. Some of the data has been sourced from Indiacom, the company which publishes Yellow Pages.

Yahoo! Local will be advertised on the company’s network sites and will also be promoted through offline activities in different localities.

Gopal Krishna, head of audience at Yahoo! India, said that Yahoo! Local is a continuation of the strategic announcements the company has been making in India. This year, Yahoo! India launched maps, driving directions and walking routes, re-designed its home page and launched a new type of search called Glue.