The
Early days
The idea for Local Ferret has developed over a period
of seven years, and was borne out of the frustration
of trying to find the web sites of local businesses
through the standard searches engines.
Feeling that many other people were experiencing
the same problems, Richard Williams of RKW Internet,
based in Lincoln, set about developing a site that
catered for local needs.
At first, he developed a county wide site, but although
the idea had merits 1996 was too early, and too few
web sites made the idea a commercial non-starter.
So he carried on building up his Web development business.
Experience also dictated that running 'free' local
directories was too time consuming to have any realistic
chance of surviving, and a number of such sites since
those early 'Net' days have disappeared or been left
to go out of date, proving the point.
The Dawning of a New Age
Even 18 months ago, local businesses were
still not arriving on the Web in sufficiently great
numbers to warrant providing a 'commercial' local
directory.
So people have still been struggling to track down
local businesses to fulfill their commercial and personal
needs.
Search engines like Google and Yahoo simply don't
cater for producing comprehensive lists of local businesses
based on local areas.
To prove the point, how many times have you the reader
tried to search Google resulting in may be one or
two businesses appearing that are actually local to
your area?
Most people are frustrated by receiving lists of
american companies even when specifically searching
for UK only web sites let alone truly
local businesses. So what hope is there?
Well, none from the likes of Google, for example,
because they are now tending to operate on the basis
of keywords and 'link popularity'. Not to mention
the confusion even amongst Search Engine Optimisation
experts as to how to gain first page results for your
web site.
Quite frankly it's a mess!
The Local Ferret Solution
Because Richard and a team of business colleagues
have been considering this problem over a number of
years Richard believes he has hit on a solution that
strikes the right balance between promoting local
businesses and helping the local people of Lincoln
find their local web sites.
We want to build a means for the local community
to be able to utilise it's local businesses in an
easy and convenient way, and also to add fun to the
experience!
So look out for games, quizzes and prizes, which
will be arriving shortly.
You've probably read enough now so please use the
rest of the site and let us know how we can improve
it for you - both the people and businesses of Lincoln
and surrounding area.
HAPPY FERRETING!
Richard Williams
|
