TC50 Winner ‘RedBeacon’ Points to Local Search Evolving… Are You Prepared?

For those who aren’t familiar with the TechCrunch50, it’s a big conference each year put on by Michael Arrington (of TechCrunch) and Jason Calacanis where 50 startups present before a panel of judges to compete for recognition and prize money, with hopes that the former may lead to serious venture capital funding.

This year’s conference just ended, and the grand prize winner is RedBeacon, a company that is like a Yelp for local businesses.

People can use the site to search for local businesses in their area and are then presented with a list of featured businesses along with user reviews.

The company was founded by ex-Google engineers and product managers.

So today, some of the technology’s best minds got together and bet on a theory that most have come to view as inevitable: the way people find local businesses online is going to continue to change a lot in the coming years.

The internet has done a miraculous job of connecting the world, but we are still figuring out how to connect people to their plumbers next door. As solutions like AdWords (and perhaps RedBeacon) emerge, it’s hard to say which model will come out on top, but you can be sure that forward-thinking business owners will be there to reap the huge rewards that come with showing up early to the party.

Most small businesses owners haven’t yet figured out how to really harness the power of Google AdWords to drive traffic to their website and customers to their door. The businesses that have gotten themselves a steady stream of AdWords traffic have found that being a small fish in a big pond can be very profitable if their competitors haven’t had the courage or know-how to test the water.

Have you experimented with any new avenues for your online marketing recently? Have you stepped into the AdWords arena, or have you been waiting on the sidelines while your competitors figure out how to utilize this platform to make more money than they ever could before?

I don’t know what’s going to be the local business finder of the future, but what I can tell you is that there is a business owner down the street from you who is making very real money on AdWords as you’re reading this.

Whether that means opening an Adwords account today yourself, going back to one that’s been collecting dust, or finding a knowledgeable AdWords professional to outsource your campaign to, there’s no better time to start becoming comfortable with the change that is sure to continue sweeping local business search.

Just ask RedBeacon.

Related posts:

1. Google Introduces Pay-Per-Call to Adwords Mobile Ads