GenieKnows.com relaunched their site with a new image and a new functionality – it is now the home of version 2.0 of their local search platform. This new release brings user-contributed reviews of local businesses along with user-contributed photos. Other notable features include a cleaner interface and improved functionality.

With this move, GenieKnows positions itself as a serious player in the local search market going head-to-head against the big boys as well as the newer smaller players.

This week, GenieKnows updated its Local platform with a few new features:

• Map caching has been optimized, providing faster map load time
• The map projections has been switched Mercator, the industry standard for online interactive maps. The streets now look more natural at zoomed-in levels.
• All Empire Theatre listings in Canada now include showtimes. Try a search for showtimes in Toronto, or movies in Halifax to get a list of the Empire Theatres in the city, along with other relevant results.
• All user contributed business listings and updates, as well as suggested related web sites have been included in this release.
• Web 2.0 fever has you? Feel compelled to share a business or a results page with family and friends? It is easy to do so using the ‘share’ menu. You can post pages on Facebook, MySpace, and StumbleUpon just to name a few.

In a recent media announcement of this release, I was quoted saying:

If there is a feature that you’d love to see on our Local but we don’t have it yet, let us know through the feedback link on the website. We are committed to improving our platform to better service the end users.

And it is true! I take user feedback very seriously and read every single one of them. So make sure you let me know what you’d like to see in the next release. Who knows, the Genie might grant your wishes.

It took a while to get everything sorted out and in order, but now it is official. GenieKnows is sponsoring Stephen and me at this year’s Cannonball Run One Lap of America. It gets even better, GenieKnows is now an official sponsor the event. The press release came out earlier today from Mark Harper, VP of Strategic Relations. The press release is reproduced below.

When Stephen Noton (Director of Search Engine Optimization with GenieKnows.com) registered himself and his 2008 smart car into the ‘One Lap of America’ race, he didn’t plan on telling anyone. “I have always be involved in cars and racing and the Cannonball was something that I wanted to do for many years” said Noton from the company offices in Halifax, Nova Scotia.

It wasn’t until he requested time off work that colleagues became aware of the event and Stephen’s involvement. News spread quickly around the office that Stephen was looking for a co-driver for the race. “There was an immediate buzz when the guys at work found out I was looking for a co-driver,” and Tony Abou-Assaleh (Director of Research at GenieKnows.com) quickly volunteered.

With two of their key employees involved in the event, it was hard for company executives to ignore the enthusiasm. “Once we understood the history, culture and nature of the ‘Cannonball One Lap of America’ race, we immediately saw the potential of promoting our new Local Search Engine,” said Barbara Miller Manning, President and CEO of GenieKnows.com. “Having Stephen involved in this event, and entering his smart car, really tied in well with our corporate mantra of “the little engine that could,” said Manning.

After some talks with event organizer, Brock Jr., the company not only decided to sponsor Stephen’s personal entry, but also to support the entire event as the Digital Media Sponsor.

“GenieKnows.com wanted to bring the local and community aspect to the One Lap of America event and decided to help start the OneLapper.com community website,” said Noton. This is a site where ‘One Lappers’ can get hosted blogs, upload their One Lap videos and photos and interact with the worldwide web community via this “Web 2.0″ platform.

GenieKnows.com is a technology provider servicing millions of search engine users monthly via its focused web-search portals like GenieKnows Local, Games & Health. “This is a perfect way to showcase the GenieKnows Local search product to the One Lappers as a way to search, map and find services during this year’s event.”

The GenieKnows Local search team will be setting up special entry web pages for each of the venues during the 8-day event, which will give participants the quickest way to find that repair shop, gas station, or even the track if they get lost!

Stephen Noton’s 451 smart fortwo, with an engine size of 999cc, is the smallest entry in this year’s event and just like GenieKnows.com, it is the little engine that could. Follow the race online at http://www.onelapper.com and search like a local at GenieKnows Local – http://local.genieknows.com

Mark Harper,
VP Strategic Relations

For comments or feedback please email local.feedback@genieknows.com.

Related Sites:

• One Lap of America Official Website: http://onelapofamerica.com
• Project Car forfiveone Page: http://www.451s.com/profile/forfiveone
• One Lapper – One Lap of America Community Site: http://onelapper.com
• GenieKnows Local Search: http://local.genieknows.com
• GenieKnows Games Portal: http://games.genieknows.com
• GenieKnows Health Search: http://health.genieknows.com

This week GenieKnows released version 1.1 of their local search, only weeks after the launch of version 1.0. Version 1.1 of the local includes many interface enhancements and bug fixes; thanks to all the feedback that was sent to them by the early users of the system. However, the main noticeable change is a much nicer looking map. The new map includes 2 additional zoom levels, one at each side of the scale. The purpose of the additional zoom levels is to accommodate for larger screens and for smaller screens. Many more city and town labels have been added over version 1.0. My favorite change though is smooth and gradual transition in the level of details as you zoom in and zoom out.
Directory pages and business info pages now use clean URLs for easy sharing and bookmarking. For example, here is a URL from version 1.0 that pointed to the Construction & Contractors directory in Halifax:

http://local.genieknows.com/local/?cat=6000&mode=neighborhood&city=Halifax&state=NS

This same page can now be accessed by the much nicer URL:

http://local.genieknows.com/directory/canada/nova-scotia/halifax/construction-&-contractors/

The new URL structure is organizing in a similar manner as the directory itself, so it is easy to tell where you are in the directory by just looking at the address. It is also very easy now to access any section in the directory by manipulating the address directly, that is, if you really don’t like using the breadcrumbs :O). A similar approach is in the oven for clean URL for search result listings.

After 4 years in the making, the GenieKnows Local search engine is finally live! I am very excited about this achievement as I was heading its development for the past 1.5 years. It is one of only three engines covering all of the US and Canada: GenieKnows Local, Google Maps and Microsoft’s Live Search Maps. Give it a try at: http://local.genieknows.com

Tell us what you like, what we can improve, and what else you would like to see. Send your comments via the “feedback” link located on all pages at GenieKnows Local. If you find it useful, pass it on!

The way Barbra Manning, CEO and President of GenieKnows, described GenieKnows after releasing its local search:

The Little Engine That Did The Impossible!

And that is true indeed. Considering how small we are in number (employees, servers, resources), the launch of GenieKnows Local version 1.0 is a demonstration that the people at GenieKnows can do the impossible.
In my previous company, Eurika IT Solution, my motto was:

Sounds logical? We can do it!

But at GenieKnows that’s too easy. My new motto at GenieKnows is:

Sounds impossible? We can do it!

Feature highlights:

• Full map of Canada and United States
• Business listings for all of Canada and US
• Directory based navigation
• Free form search for locations, addresses, businesses, and business categories
• Unique and innovative zone-based map navigation
• Exact result counts: what you see is what you get. If it says there are 15065 restaurants in New York, you can use the map to navigate to every single one of them!
• Many other enhancements, such displaying the whether information of your target city, different map views, ability search the visible maps, …

Let me know what your favorite features are. The best way to do so is through the feedback link on the page displaying the feature. The feedback messages are sent to my mailbox with additional info such as the URL you’re viewing so I know exactly what you’re talking about.

Congratulations to the entire GenieKnows team!