Thanks to Yahoo’s partnership with Dash Navigation, you can now have Yahoo Local search in your car. Dash is calling the feature a GPS-industry first and at least one analyst shares the company’s optimism.
Dash’s in-car GPS device, the Dash Express, will allow users to search the Web with Yahoo Local. Results will return formatted into address cards presented as a listing of nearby
businesses. Dash said that the device
will sometimes display Yahoo Local ratings and reviews with the results.
Talks between Dash and Yahoo began last fall, Dash Navigation Vice President of Marketing Robert Ackers told internetnews.com. Local search was an “obvious extension” to a GPS system
that helps drivers get where they want to go, he added.
JupiterKagan analyst Sapna Satagopan told internetnews.com she
shares Ackers’s enthusiasm. Bringing local search to GPS devices solves a big problem for Yahoo’s relatively new mobile marketing business.
“Yahoo has to convince marketers that there are enough people
accessing local search,” Satagopan said. She said that if the Dash
Express works well enough as a directions-giving GPS device to sell
well enough, that problem is solved.
The bonus for Yahoo, Satagopan said, is that not only will it be able
to tout a new group of searchers, but its sales people will be able
to assure marketers that these aren’t ordinary searchers.
These searchers aren’t browsing at home; they’re in their cars, they’re on their way and they’ve got good directions.
Ackers would not disclose business terms of the deal,
including whether it is exclusive or involves
revenue sharing.
Dash Express will be available in California this spring and nationwide this fall.