(11 June 2008 4:58 pm)

MUMBAI:Yahoo! India has launched a local information platform - Yahoo! India Local (beta). The new launch will be made available at local.yahoo.in.

The product was conceptualized and developed by the Yahoo! India team in collaboration with the Yahoo! India Research & Development team. Yahoo! India Local will be available across Delhi/NCR (National Capital Region), Chennai, Mumbai and Bangalore. Yahoo! India Local will provide local information like business listings, maps and directions, local events, and current movies.

The portal will include categories like restaurants, pubs, shopping malls, hospitals, schools, tailors, banks, health and fitness, and 24 hour pharmacies. It will also enable users to write reviews, mark local business on the map, add listings or events.

Another important feature of the portal is going to be the "essentialist". Essentialist will provide details of essential services like nearest gas agency, cable TV provider, provision stores, pharmacies and packers and movers. The feature will also provide users with location of salons for men and women, apparel shops, jewelers, event management companies, catering services, party halls and hotels in a specific locality.

Yahoo! India head of audience Gopal Krishna said, "Yahoo! India Local (Beta) exemplifies our strategy to be the leading starting point on the web, by providing the most relevant and compelling experience for local needs. With this innovative product, we are trying to make the web more useful, engaging, interesting and localized to our users."

Yahoo! India business head (local and maps) Sridhar Ranganathan said, "Designed to create an active and vibrant community, Yahoo! India Local will enable its users to harness community knowledge. With user-friendly tools like reviews and footprints, people can now find, use, share and enhance their local information at ease."