The Cyber Customer Across Town

Tapping the local market on the World Wide Web

If you’ve ever searched on Yahoo for the nearest bookstore or pizza place, then it’s not news to you that the World Wide Web has become as much a tool for exploring your own neighborhood as it is for planning a vacation to some far-off land.

And as consumers turn to the Internet to find local services, the advertisers are following close behind. Both Google and Yahoo offer the “local search” feature to advertisers, giving them even greater control over who sees their ads.

If your company is not tapping into local googlers, it might be time to give it a thought.

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Taming the Savage Email

What to do when you're drowning in your inbox

Even after mastering the art of spam filtering, most people wade through a deluge of e-mail every day – not to mention what happens when you’re on vacation. Sure, cleaning out your inbox is a great way to put off all those other things clamoring for your attention, but just looking at an endless string of bold-faced messages can be enough to cause stress. Here are some fast and easy tips for getting a grip on your e-mail. None require you to be a computer whiz.

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Two Cents -- Logistics

What is a unique or memorable shipment your company handled?

Interviews with five industry professionals.

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Two Cents -- Web Design

What's your favorite or most memorable recent Web design project?

Interviews with five professionals.

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Catering to the Dog

Pet services are a growing business breed

Consumers will cut back on a lot of things in a recession, but don’t count on it being Fido. Pet-related expenditures in America totaled an estimated $35.9 billion in 2005, up $1.5 billion from 2004 and more than double what they were a decade earlier, according to the American Pet Products Manufacturers Association (APPMA).

“This is one of the areas in which sales don’t decrease in a recession,” said Bob Vetere, COO and managing director of the APPMA. He cited several reasons for growth, including “growing uncertainty about the future” and more empty homes, as baby boomers’ children move out and young professionals wait to have children.

Not to mention that people are treating their animals more and more like, well, people.

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