Local Search, Review & Listing Vertical Challenging

TechCrunch is reporting that Judy’s Book a Craigslist alternative for local deals will be shutting down. The company raised $10M in venture money and most of the staff has been let go.

Judy’s Book started off as a community driven review site for local businesses, but changed it’s focus in 2006 when the original model looked to be failing. The company de-focused on local reviews, and went more towards the shopping angle and local deals.

Despite the fact that Craigslist is thriving well, the local review and search vertical has been a tough one. Intuit shut down Zipingo last year and InsiderPages was purchased at cost by IAC's CitySearch.

Other companies in the local search, review, listing and shopping vertical that are still standing are Yelp, Zvents, Krillion, Local.com to name a few. However, expect there to be competition from Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, Ask.com and AOL. Due to the sheer mass and specificity of the data Google, Yahoo and Microsoft are better able to leverage their existing search platforms to present local information. Google has rolled out a special program to maps streets in India. Also, the economics of integrating mapping and other technologies favor Google, Yahoo and the other majors.