A new study of 3000 US consumers puts local search at the top of the charts for ways people use to find local business information.

TMP Direction Marketing’s Local Search Usage Study confirms that in 2008 the web comes out ahead of print for local business information searches. Last year’s study showed printed phone directories as having a slightly larger following with 33% of respondents citing print as their first point of call for local information and the web following closely behind at 30%.

This year the tables have turned and search engines top the list at 31% with printed directories falling to 30%. It’s a close race, but as Screenwerk’s Greg Stirling puts it, we have now passed the tipping point. I wholeheartedly agree with Greg’s comment that there will be differences in the web/print usage depending on the category and market but the trend is definitely moving towards the richer data consumers can find online. Printed directories simply can’t provide reviews, opening hours, product and service details in the same way that online local directories can.

What this means to local businesses is that it’s now essential to have a good local search presence. A listing on Google Local, Bizwiki (and the sites Bizwiki powers) and other free online business directories and local search sites help to put your details in front of your potential customers. The good news is that, unlike some of the print directories, Bizwiki is free and you’re not limited to just a phone number and address. And Bizwiki also saves you time by placing your listing on not just the one (albeit fantastic!) site, Bizwiki also powers other major local search sites such as Accessplace.com, TownPages.com and British Services as well as industry specific verticals such as BuilderNet.

Have you signed up for your free listing?

Yesterday’s post on the Kelsy Group blog highlights the fact that people no longer want to search through categories to find businesses, they want to search by service or product or other “keywords”. They want to use “natural search”.

This is where Bizwiki is leading the way in local search. Bizwiki provides the standard categorisation for anyone wishing to search that way, however the majority of our users use the free form search box. By building a unique synonym set and merging it with our own proprietary algorithm Bizwiki is able to provide relevant local results in seconds.

Here are just a few examples of the relevant results Bizwiki’s NaturalSearch functionality provides:

Looking for a curry house in Birmingham?

Has your Selby office run out of printer ink?

Do you need help selling your Essex based business?

Want to know where the all night petrol stations in Warwick are?

Going on holiday from Swansea and need travel money?

NaturalSearch is the way forward. Why limit users to selecting a category? Why confine them to some archaic taxonomy?

Bizwiki’s NaturalSearch technology is still in the beginning stages. If you think it’s good now just wait til you see what we have in store!