Thomson Local unveils new website

Thomson Local has unveiled a raft of new features on its site, ThomsonLocal.com, as part of its plan to bolster its online business.

The first of the changes sees users given the ability to rate and review local businesses listed on the site via a five star voting system. Users can score advertisers against key criteria including value for money, quality, level of service, time taken and also submit comment on the overall impression of the business.

Advertisers will be provided with “rate my work” business cards to give to their customers, directing them to the site in order to build ratings.

A new classified service for users and advertisers has also been introduced on the site, following a partnership with online classified specialist, Oodle.

The Thomson Local Small Ad service will allow visitors to enter a ‘buy and sell’ marketplace where they can search for items and either place small ads for free or showcase their products or services with a prominent featured listing.

The deal will also see Thomson Local providing 1.8 million local business listings to Oodle and its partner network which includes Sun Local, AOL and Facebook.

Meanwhile, Thompson Local has formed a new partnership with Expedia Affiliate Network (EAN), enabling users to visit a travel and holidays portal to book flights, hotels and destination services.

Further, the partnership will see the local business search company adding Expedia travel offers to holiday related search results pages. In addition, Thomson Local advertisers who also feature on Expedia will benefit from a ‘click to book’ function in their adverts when returned in relevant search results.

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