MetroSEEQ

Gannett took a 13% dive on last Wednesday after revenue fell short.  This is significant because it’s a sign that newspapers are having difficulty making the transition to the online era.   Print advertising has been getting weaker and weaker.

Gannett’s medication is buying ShopLocal - all of it, a Chicago-based company valued at $85 million in 2006 is now only valued at $52.5 million.  The strategy is to use both ShopLocal with PointRoll ad network.

After doing a query for restaurants in ShopLocal’s default city in Minneapolis in ShopLocal, I just cannot figure how this is worth tens of millions.  It gave me 4 results — yes, only 4 results, not 4 out of 400 or 2000.  Just 4.  What’s worse?  It actually matched Restaurants in Home & Garden. Major confusion here.

Here are the 4 results, you can also query it and see what you get

1. Zagat to go restaurant & entertainment guide v5.0

2. White Restaurant Quality Tablecloth

3. Farberware Restaurant Pro 10″ open Skillet

4. Out to Brunch: At Mildred Pierce Restaurant.

DOUBLE Confusion - why are these not restaurants in Minneapolis?

What I cannot believe is how it has a 850 Alexa rank.  Pretty much the only thing cool about this site is browing circulars online.  But that’s way simple to setup from the technical standponit - anyone with some descent programming skills can set that up in a day by using some open source plugins.  I must be missing something here.  How come I, a somewhat web savvy individual, cannot figure out what value ShopLocal adds if I want to shop locally?  Anyone?

We added a new features today!  A better interaction experience when you move map to find new places - the results will finish loading first before you can move the map to a new place again.  Check it out and keep those comments and suggestions coming.

More design improvements are being planned as we speak to lead you to find deal information easier.  Stay tuned and check back often