Volker Gläser, search director for Yahoo Deutschland, says that local search is more significant in Germany than the UK or France sometimes reaching levels as high as 30% of all searches. He puts this down largely to the division of the country into "Länder".
In February, Yahoo launched in beta a local search facility across Germany in partnership with local directory 'Das Örliche' to provide locally oriented searches using two search boxes - one for the query, one for the location.
The system is needed to integrate with pay per click provider Overture's local advertising system which already represents 15% of Overture's turnover in the US, according to Isabell Wagner of Overture in Germany.
The Overture local advertising system is due to go live some time during 2005, said Frau Wagner at the search engine strategies conference in Munich. It had been expected earlier.
