Through the UK subsidiary , the company is planning what it describes as an aggressive assault on the European search market.
It specialises in providing unbranded Yellow Pages-style business listings and local search services to major websites. In its home market, it powers business directory listings for sites including Yahoo! Australia & New Zealand and phonebook.com.au.
The London office is One Local Search's first outside Australia. It is being headed by former Overture manager Jonny Crowe, who has taken the title of managing director for Europe.
He will work closely with group chairman David Mayman to develop the European business in cooperation with key partners. The company is initially seeking to partner with major UK print media groups, search engines, portals and ISPs to replicate its success in Australia.
The idea is to provide local business listings to search engines that can only be found on branded directories at present, such as Yell.com and Scoot.com.
"One Local Search is the only company in the UK to offer business listings to internet destinations without branding risk. The household-name 'yellow pages' directory companies offer similar services to us, but they insist on branding and challenge the search engines for traffic, making them competitors rather than partners," Crowe said.
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