A Friday curiosity… Locallife, a small UK local web directory, is already aiming at Transatlantic aspirations. In a press release full of bravado, Southend-on-Sea-based Locallife says it’s setting up an office in Arizona and vows to create a hard-to-believe 4,000 jobs in the region. It’s using Phoenix as a base to try and replicate its UK business on a franchise system across the US, planning 2,000 city-centric local directory sites. On these shores, it has 324 sites.
This approach to local content seems incredibly retro… pepper each site with an extensive and identical listings structure, then hope that users will actually populate it with material. So far, there’s little indication of that. Still, Arizona seems pleased – local economic development bosses described Locallife as a “leading British local internet search firm”.