Search is changing rapidly in the AI era. What does it mean for local marketers? Places Scout founder – and now Yext executive – Mark Kabana has been watching it for years and gives us his take…
The State of Local Search in 2025
Fresh off of Yext’s acquisition of Places Scout, we talk to founder Mark Kabana about his insights and observations of the local search universe and its orbiting bodies
Speakers
Mark Kabana, Places Scout/Yext
Key Takeaways
- Yext recently acquired local search analytics & benchmarking leader Places Scout.
- What were the acquisition drivers? Among other things, it brings Places Scout data in-house for Yext.
- Places Scout can provide local search and online presence diagnostics for Yext customers.
- Moreover, it fuses that diagnostic capability with Yext’s tools to then solve issues directly.
- Boiling that all down, the diagnosis and treatment can now happen in the same doctor visit.
- Panning back, this all happens during a time when local search is being rapidly disrupted by AI.
- Among other things, this means a fragmented set of places where consumers can get their information online.
- Though Google is still the dominant front door, ChatGPT and other AI engines are eroding its market share.
- This fragmentation creates even more reasons than before for local businesses to optimize their place data.
- Correct information has more places to be found and incorrect information has more capability to do damage.
- This fragmentation only boosts Yext’s longstanding value proposition: to get your information right at the source.
- Yext will continue to build tools – now with Places Scout – to align with these shifting macro factors in AI and search.
