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Will your competitors have the same advantage?
We are the only site I know of like ours that is a launch member of Facebook Connect. They will open up to some of our competitors, but only if they can show good integration. Facebook remains loyal to their users and they're not going to favor Citysearch. Our advantage is that we're doing it first.

Sites like Yelp.com have thrived because they've built up a community of fervent reviewers. Is that why you're turning to Facebook?
Yelp is an example of somebody who has done a good job. But there are really only two places that people write local reviews—Citysearch and Yelp. For Yelp, you've got only user reviews and you've got so many of them. But say you've got 10 people reviewing instead of 1,000? With such a tight-knit following, that creates an issue. With Citysearch, people will find user reviews and an editorial voice. That's very different than just building a tight social community. We love people participating, but we just think that by expanding it to Facebook—and to MySpace the next quarter—we can only do better. And with mobile technology, we'll be the first site where people can write reviews from any mobile phone.

As the site gets bigger, does that mean you'll have to spend more money hiring editors?
We're increasing by 25 to 50 percent. But it's not a risk because we understand the model and we have been a profitable company—even in the last three years. We're at a healthy place.

But what about the current economy? What's going to happen to Citysearch if people stop heading to bars or going out to eat?
We don't know how bad things will be. With regard to local advertising—our main source of revenue—we have seen no impact whatsoever. We've seen display advertising take a big hit since October, but when it comes to local advertising, small businesses are moving to more efficient platforms. With us, they can see how consumers are engaging with them, say by tracking phone calls or seeing how many times people watch a video. Money will flow from less efficient places to more efficient ones. So I'm hoping that we can benefit. But I would be stupid to think it's not going to change. I have to plan for the worst.

© 2008