infoUSA Directory Assistance Content to be Licensed by Microsoft for Local Search
Thursday, 25 May 2006
infoUSA, a provider of proprietary business and consumer databases and sales leads, announced an agreement to license its business database to Microsoft Corporation, the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions.
Under the agreement, Microsoft will receive infoUSA's directory assistance database of over 13.5 million businesses in the US. This information will become available in Microsoft's MSN Local Search and Windows Live Local Search providing Microsoft users access to the most comprehensive directory of businesses in the United States.
infoUSA Chairman and CEO Vin Gupta commented, "infoUSA's business directory assistance content combined with Microsoft's search technology provides Microsoft users with the most relevant and timely yellow page and local search results. We share Microsoft's commitment to offering the highest quality content and user experience. infoUSA's proprietary compilation and verification process ensures that all of our business listings contain the most current and accurate information available."
John Skovron, general manager for Microsoft Local Search, remarked "Adding infoUSA's business listings to our Local Search services will improve both the accuracy and breadth of our coverage, making our award winning Windows Live Local even more useful for consumers."
infoUSA is a provider of proprietary business databases to the online yellow pages and local search industries. The Top 5 Search Engines(a) that support 97 percent of all US searches, based on comScore qSearch search engine rankings, use infoUSA data to power their local search and directory offerings. [Top 5 search engines according to comScore qSearch search engine rankings: Google Sites, Yahoo! Sites, MSN-Microsoft Sites, Time-Warner Network, and Ask Network.]
infoUSA is aggressively adding more enhanced information for the online directory market. These enhancements include 6 million storefront photographs with precise GPS coordinates, hours of operation on 3 million businesses and credit cards accepted on 2.1 million businesses.