Skift Take
The evolution of Google’s Search and Maps products from web-centric to IRL have made searching, booking, and navigating to restaurants a seamless experience and handed Google the lion's share of local discovery.
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We've just released our annual industry trends forecast, Skift Restaurant Megatrends 2019. You can read about each of the trends on Skift Table as well as download a copy of our magazine here.
In less than two decades the battle over local discovery has shifted from a five pound book filled with yellow pages that sits in the kitchen to a smartphone that you can access from anywhere.
In the late 1990s companies including Microsoft Sidewalk, AOL Digital Cities, and CitySearch duked it out digitally to be the place people discovered a new restaurant or bar online, while print outfits like Zagat, Time Out, and local newspapers did the same in print. There were multiple ways to find a place to go in print and online.
This isn’t really true anymore. Google, with it’s trifecta of Google Maps, Mobile search, and Desktop search fuels local discovery with a dominance that i
