Citysearch is an online

city guide A guide book or travel guide is "a book of information about a place designed for the use of visitors or tourists". It will usually include information about sights, accommodation, restaurants, transportation, and activities. Maps of varying det ...

that provides information about businesses in the categories of dining, entertainment, retail, travel, and professional services in cities throughout the United States. Visitors to each of Citysearch's local city guides will find contact information, maps, driving directions, editorial, and user reviews for the businesses listed. Citysearch is headquartered in

West Hollywood West Hollywood is a city in Los Angeles County, California, United States. Incorporated in 1984, it is home to the Sunset Strip. As of the 2020 U.S. Census, its population was 35,757. History Most historical writings about West Hollywood be ...

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

and is an owned and operated web site of CityGrid Media, which is an operating business of . The original office was in Pasadena, California. Citysearch was founded in September 1995 by Jeffrey Brewer, Caskey Dickson, Brad Haaugard, Taylor Wescoatt, and Tamar Halpern. Charles R. Conn was then recruited to lead the new company. The idea, initiative, and seed capital came initially from Bill Gross. In August 1998, Citysearch merged with

Ticketmaster Ticketmaster Entertainment, LLC is an American ticket sales and distribution company based in Beverly Hills, California, with operations in many countries around the world. In 2010, it merged with Live Nation under the name Live Nation Ente ...

Online. In July 1999, Citysearch acquired the competing Sidewalk.com website from

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...

, and merged the two sites together. In December 1999, Ticketmaster-CitySearch received a $40 million investment from USA Networks, Inc., then controlled by Barry Diller. In 2007, another competitor, Insider Pages was acquired. In June 2010, Citysearch LLC rebranded as CityGrid Media. The company also operates similar local consumer properties, such as Insider Pages. In 2019, acquired CityGrid Media from IAC. While many local search sites mushroomed in the 21st century, Citysearch faced intense competition from the fast-growing Yelp, Inc. In the late 2000s, Yelp grew at 80% while Citysearch growth remained flat. Local search engines from Bing, Google and Yahoo also became competitors to Citysearch for finding local businesses on the internet.

Best of Citysearch

Best of Citysearch is a feature that gives locals an opportunity to vote for their favorite businesses in popular categories such as Restaurants, Nightlife, Hotels and Services. Citysearch opens up its annual polls with nominations from editors. Throughout the voting period visitors to the site cast votes for their favorite local business. After the polls close, the top ten businesses in each category are revealed to their cities.

Criticism

In 2005, Citysearch was criticized by a blogger for their alleged inflation of user submitted ratings and reviews. Citysearch has since updated their ratings system. Citysearch has also stated that they have the right to refuse to post or to remove any user review that violates the terms of use. Reviews that are subject to removal include unacceptable content such as profanity, personal information, promotion of illegal activity and harmful content. In November 2007, Citysearch partnered with MerchantCircle,Search Engine Watch, Nov 29, 2007
a company that conducts automated telemarketing to small businesses to sell them online advertising packages.

References

External links

* {{Webby Awards, cat=Travel, type=Winner, year=1998 American review websites Companies based in Los Angeles County, California Online mass media companies of the United States IAC Inc. Webby Award winners City guides