15 things iBegin Source does better
Posted by Ahmed as Local Search at 10:59 AM UTC 15/03/2007All about iBegin Source:
- Focus on local data. The competitors talk about businesses, consumers, mailing lists, and so forth. We are just about business data. Nothing more, nothing less.
- Nothing to hide. Company X can claim 14,000,000 records – but how can you be sure the data is any good? We have opened up our data for everyone to see.
- It is an open system. Are we missing a business? Add it in under a minute. Do we not have a URL that we should? Edit it and be done in 15 seconds flat.
- Cheap. Did I say cheap? I meant really cheap. Other companies try to charge you above $500,000. Not a single company charges under $100,000.
- No pushy sales team. No need to fill out a ‘quote request’ or go through a ’sales specialist’ trying to wring every single penny out of you. Simple automated-system
- Already geocoded. Geocoding over 10 million addresses is not a cheap endeavor. Does anyone else offer it? Nope.
- No extra charges. Daily, weekly, and monthly updates are available at no extra cost. The other providers? Get ready to pay more. Popular site? You pay extra based on how popular your site is.
- We support web standards. From hCard to WCAG Accessibility to the interestingly named ‘ICBM’ meta tag, we support it.
- Trackback system for automated updates to us. No data-provider lets you send them updates. We want those updates – send them to us.
- Free download (non-commercial). Yes we had to remove phone numbers. And yes it isn’t geocoded. But no one else lets you download information on over 10,000,000 US businesses without paying a dime.
- Expanding soon. We are only in the US right now, but in the upcoming months we are expanding worldwide, including to countries like Canada, the UK, New Zealand, and more.
- Use the data forever. Other data brokers make you pay a yearly fee (just to use the data) – not us.
- Franchises galore. We have created a system in extracting information on over a million franchise locations in the US.
- Experience. Unlike the other companies, we use the data ourselves for a local search site. We know what works, and what doesn’t.
- Not publicly mentioned, but once we see some interesting non-commercial applications, we intend on giving them a commercial license for free.
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12 Responses to: 15 things iBegin Source does better
March 15th, 2007 at 1:20 pm
1
Holy crap Ahmed! This is intense…
You are really going to disrupt the major players’ livelihoods! Looking forward to signing up for the Canadian and Australian data for our ShopDirectories when you get it…
Are you attending Local ‘07 personally? If so, I’m looking forward to meeting and speaking with you…
Nice work! You’ve been a busy guy (and I probably have no idea just how busy, do I?)
Colin
March 15th, 2007 at 1:48 pm
2
Yep – me and Allison (Director of iBegin Source) will be there.
Australia is also in the pipeline – just some other stuff (ie geocoding) can be a bit of a headache
March 15th, 2007 at 6:46 pm
3
Great – look forward to meeting you…
I can imagine – I can’t believe what you’ve already managed to put together – very impressive!
March 16th, 2007 at 7:36 am
4
i should have taken you up on your preview offer. congrats on getting this up… it’s a pretty amazing project.
March 18th, 2007 at 6:23 pm
5
Very nice work !
Most of your 15 things seem indeed to make your point.
Do you intend to cover Europe any time soon ? (data is even much less available than in the US, let alone “open”)
Do you consider doing ‘fractional’ pricing per state when only a certain category of businesses is needed ? (e.g. only hotels, or bars)
March 18th, 2007 at 6:44 pm
6
Depends on what you define as ’soon’
Our ETA for Canada is 4-6 weeks. Our ETA for other countries (including European countries) is 16-20 weeks. Half the battle is the data, the other half is geocoding. Any specific one in mind?
We have discussed categorized pricing, but nothing is planned for the immediate future. Of course the benefit is that since this *is* raw data, creating a specific category (ie hotels) is not too difficult.
Provided Nearyoo is US-based, our data is the perfect fit for you
March 19th, 2007 at 11:19 am
7
[...] And for more info about the 15 things iBegin Source does better than the competition, you can click here. [...]
March 20th, 2007 at 10:10 pm
8
[...] I read 15 things iBegin Source does better on a blog the other day so I was pleasantly surprised when this showed up on ReviewMe, because it’s an interesting idea. Anything build around sharing data cheaply (well, for that market anyway) is a great idea. [...]
March 21st, 2007 at 2:43 pm
9
Hi, I have a non-commercial mobile mapping and driving direction application. Real time and up to dated and accurate business listing data would make it so much more useful. how do I obtain a license? and do you have the residential listing data too?
March 22nd, 2007 at 7:01 pm
10
As long as it is not a commercial enterprise, feel free.
Just head on over to http://source.ibegin.com/download/ and start downloading away.
April 25th, 2007 at 4:31 pm
11
[...] You can find additional information about iBegin Source in these bullet points which I believe were written by one of the developers. I am not sure about whether it is done better, or just different. One point raised was about a lack of sales process. I am not convinced that is a benefit. [...]
August 17th, 2010 at 5:13 pm
12
Hi Ahmed,
We are very interested in acquiring some of your iBegin business listing data as soon as possible. I have tried accessing this through your site, but the business center appears down.
Is there anyway I can contact you directly? Or is iBegin closed indefinitely?
Please email me at the above address if possible. Thank you.
–Girish
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