Happen to like the concept of the age-old Yellow Pages, but don’t like the way the directory has been implemented, online or off? Consider GenieTown an easier-to-use alternative.
This startup, today launched as a public beta its local services marketplace, a so-called hybrid love-child of a trio of services: the Yellow Pages, Craigslist, and eBay. It claims to mate the A-to-Z system of the first, plus the localism of the second, and the “long tail-ness” of the last (not literally, though; it does everything on its own merit), and brings the benefits of each together to give people the option to find plumbers, electricians, and emergency Web developers without trying too hard.
GenieTown hopes to be the connection for any type of service delivered anywhere to anyone. Be it something to do with home improvement, culinary gigs, music lessons, or troubleshooting those finicky home networks everyone and their mother is putting together, this new site is looking to match you with any and all professionals and assistants for a near limitless array of possible tasks.
One significant limitation you should be made aware of. (Very significant, actually.) GenieTown is presently targeted for services and service seekers mainly in the San Francisco Bay Area. So Kansans and Alabamans aren’t going get much out of GenieTown from the start.
Of course, as with most things born today on the Web, attention will bring growth. Probably quite a bit of it. But how much short-term growth will come is what will likely make or break this debut.
There’s also, you know, the marvel that is Craigslist to account for. Craigslist isn’t just classifieds anymore. For a long while it’s been...everything. It is indisputably the king of local, and is probably be the biggest name in service search, too - whether common or miscellaneous. So its not going to be very easy for GenieTown to compete. The most popular kid on the block is popular for a reason. In virtual reach, Craigslist is pretty much insurmountable at this point. GenieTown is going to have to exploit niche sectors like crazy to get itself a market footprint that’s really sustainable and which can then snowball into something much larger and a more legitimate alternative to the status quo for the average individual.