Yext

Yext Inc. is a New York-based online business-listings company.

What's in a Xylem? ITT Unveils Its New Offspring James R. Hagerty 2011

Yext, founded in 2006, already sells online advertising and reputation-management services to more than 20,000 local businesses.

Websites Ally Against Google to Sell Local-Business Ads Emily Steel 2010

Though the Yext Tag service covers multiple sites, the Google service allows a company to supplement its listings on Google search results and map listings.

Websites Ally Against Google to Sell Local-Business Ads Emily Steel 2010

Jeannine Taaffe , Banfield's senior vice president of marketing, says one advantage to Yext Tags over Google is that the same campaign can be run across multiple sites.

Websites Ally Against Google to Sell Local-Business Ads Emily Steel 2010

Yext Chief Executive Howard Lerman says Yext Tags will give consumers more of an incentive to step into a store than does a standard listing or online ad.

Websites Ally Against Google to Sell Local-Business Ads Emily Steel 2010

Yext gets about half the revenue and shares the remainder with the sites where the tags appear.

Websites Ally Against Google to Sell Local-Business Ads Emily Steel 2010

Yext is selling the service directly to advertisers at YextTags.com and also plans to allow other companies to start selling it in the first quarter of 2011.

Websites Ally Against Google to Sell Local-Business Ads Emily Steel 2010

Using technology developed by start-up Yext, some top local sites are trying out a new way to attract ad dollars.

Business Watch 2010

But she adds that she plans to continue advertising on Google while testing out the Yext service, and will adjust her ad spending based on how the ads perform.

Websites Ally Against Google to Sell Local-Business Ads Emily Steel 2010

Throwing in with Yext poses some risks for local websites, such as possibly cannibalizing their own direct ad sales.

Websites Ally Against Google to Sell Local-Business Ads Emily Steel 2010