The Woodlands, Texas – February 26, 2010 – GoLocal247.com, a division of The User-Friendly Phone Book, is now tweeting content to Twitter posted by local business owners and site visitors about local companies on its network of 32 hyperlocal Yellow Pages business directory sites in eight states.

Each of the 32 sites has its own geo-targeted Twitter account, which tweets recent reviews, new coupons and links to featured profiles on the GoLocal247 site about local businesses. Coupons and featured profile links are the result of small businesses updating their listing and profile information, while recent reviews are generated by site visitors.

Reviews, coupons and featured profiles on the GoLocal247 network are fed to Twitterfeed via three different RSS feeds available for each local site. The technology of sharing content posted across the GoLocal247 network with Twitter provides small businesses additional exposure of the company on Twitter and in Google, Yahoo and Bing search engine results.

“The local twitter accounts allow us to reach a new audience of Web surfers looking for local business information but not searching our GoLocal247 network directly,” said Mary Beth Brendza, VP, Operations at The User-Friendly Phone Book and GoLocal247.com. “The tweets to our business profile landing pages increases awareness of our local sites and provides additional, free marketing exposure for the thousands of small business advertisers on our sites. We are hoping our advertisers see an increase in traffic to their profile page on the GoLocal247 network, the business’s Web site, and experience higher in-store coupon redemptions.”

Twitter was the fastest growing social network in 2009 and is considered to be the third most popular social network, behind Facebook and MySpace. Google and Bing recently updated their search algorithms to include tweets in real-time search results. Industry experts suggest businesses that embrace social media opportunities via social networking sites like Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and YouTube will benefit from the increased visibility social networking provides.

About GoLocal247.com

The GoLocal247 network is one of the fastest growing community-focused website companies in the country with Web sites in parts of California, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Ohio, Oklahoma and Texas. The company took the hyper-local approach by building community portals with a robust Yellow Page business directory. The first site launched in June 2008 and is now comprised of 32 local sites in eight states.

The heart of GoLocal247 is a robust Yellow Page business directory. Users can locate thousands of in-depth profiles on local businesses, rate and review them, and utilize money-savings coupons. They also can browse and post free classified ads, view and add events to the community calendar, and catch up on the latest news, entertainment and sports happening in the community and around the world.

Golocal247 is the internet division of The User-Friendly Phone Book, a portfolio company of VS&A Communications Partners III, LP — the private equity affiliate of media industry merchant bank Veronis Suhler Stevenson. Learn more about GoLocal247.com at www.golocal247.com. For more information about The User-Friendly Phone Book, visit www.ufpb.net.

The Woodlands, Texas and Herndon, Virginia – February 9, 2010 – The User-Friendly Phone Book, LLC publicly launched a new local search platform at GoLocal247.com using Discovery Engine TM and other
technology from Intelligenx. This dynamic new platform has expanded the robust capability and performance of the GoLocal247 network, creating even more valuable exposure and visibility for small businesses (SMB’s).

Discovery Engine TM provides super-fast performance and extensive search-and-filtering capabilities on keyword-rich data, state-of-the-art linguistics and advanced search refinement functionalities that will help local consumers searching for products and services online find and discover exactly what they are looking for.

“This is a win-win for our site visitors and for our advertisers,” said Andrea Mooney, Internet Product Manager for the GoLocal247 network. “Visitors looking for a particular product or service can easily find the right merchants on the site. Small business advertisers will gain more exposure and visibility because they will now be found under more than just categories – users can now search for businesses by keywords or categories and all relevant businesses can be represented on the first page of the search results through refinements.”

In the second phase of the launch, currently being developed, Discovery Engine TM will provide SMB website crawling in order to obtain additional refinements for users related to reviews and ratings, coupons, local classifieds and events.

“We are pleased to have played a key role in the development of GoLocal247’s new local search application,” said Abid Chaudhry, Product Manager for Intelligenx. “The team at GoLoca247 has worked hard on the new application in order that they can offer a unique content proposition to the users that come to their site and a great return on investment to their advertisers.”

The GoLocal247.com network consists of 32 community-focused websites in parts of California, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Ohio, Oklahoma and Texas. GoLocal247 network users can search thousands of in-depth profiles on local businesses, download money-saving coupons, review businesses, add events to the community calendar, post free classified ads and connect with other members in their community through the site’s social networking features. Users can also catch up on the latest news, weather, entertainment and sports happenings in their community.

About GoLocal247.com

The GoLocal247 network is one of the fastest growing community-focused website companies in the country with Web sites in parts of California, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Ohio, Oklahoma and Texas. The company took the hyper-local approach by building community portals with a robust Yellow Page business directory. The first site launched in June 2008 and is now comprised of 32 local sites in eight states.

The heart of GoLocal247 is a robust Yellow Page business directory. Users can locate thousands of in-depth profiles on local businesses, rate and review them, and utilize money-savings coupons. They also can browse and post free classified ads, view and add events to the community calendar, and catch up on the latest news, entertainment and sports happening in the community and around the world.

Golocal247 is the internet division of The User-Friendly Phone Book, a portfolio company of VS&A Communications Partners III, LP — the private equity affiliate of media industry merchant bank Veronis Suhler Stevenson. Learn more about GoLocal247.com at www.golocal247.com. For more information about The User-Friendly Phone Book, visit www.ufpb.net.

About Intelligenx

Intelligenx is a leading provider of faceted search technology in the field of Internet Yellow Pages (IYP) and Local Search. Intelligenx’s search platform, Discovery Engine, combines highly scalable search and retrieval technology with a deep understanding of the nuances of Local Search including specific linguistics and semantic capabilities, and visualization tailored to provide consumers with the ultimate online local search experience. Intelligenx provides technology and related services for some of the largest yellow page publishers in the world looking to bridge the gap between print directories and the online search marketplace.

Intelligenx is headquartered in the Northern Virginia suburbs of Washington DC, with offices in South America. Learn more about Intelligenx at www.Intelligenx.com.

THE WOODLANDS, Texas (February 8, 2010) – In response to the growing demand for affordable, professional websites; GoLocal247.com, the Internet division of The User Friendly Phone Book, has expanded their line of Internet products with the launch of goWebDesign247.com in order to provide customized websites based on proven template designs.

There are companies offering templates and there are other companies offering custom design; goWebDesign247 has created a process that uses the best aspects of both approaches. Templates, based on proven web design structures and strategies, can be adapted and customized specifically for the information and design needs of the client.

“This allows us to simplify the entire process for our clients and create websites in weeks that otherwise would take months of meetings and thousands of dollars to develop from scratch,” said Mary Beth Brendza, Vice President of The User Friendly Phone Book, the parent company of goWebDesign247.

Many businesses have known that they need a website for years, but they’ve never had the time or knowledge to get everything together or, possibly, they have been burned in the past by trusting friends and companies that failed to deliver on their promises and are stuck with broken websites that cannot be updated. GoWebDesign247 makes it easy by beginning with proven design templates and building on them to meet their client’s specific requirements.

When a customer’s Internet needs grow beyond a 3 or 5 page website, the team of experts that GoWebDesign247 has assembled are additionally able to provide their experience to manage and develop flash, ecommerce, Joomla, Wordpress, and JavaScript solutions.

The User-Friendly Phone Book (UFPB), LLC, is a leading independent publisher of yellow page directories across the United States. The GoLocal247 network is one of the fastest growing community-focused website companies in the country with Web sites in parts of California, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Ohio, Oklahoma and Texas.

For further information contact goWebSites247 at www.gowebdesign247.com

The Woodlands, Texas – February 8, 2010 – The User-Friendly Phone Book, LLC has updated its GoLocal247 network of 32 hyperlocal business directory sites in 8 states to enable visitors to interact with the site using their Facebook account and share media between the two sites.

Besides a visitor using their Facebook account to login and interact with a GoLocal247 site, users can let their virtual network of friends learn more about their favorite local business services and providers. Facebook Connect users can perform 20 additional tasks on the site that can be shared across both social networks. Some of the tasks include posting business reviews, rating a business, recommending a business, notify friends about an event they plan to attend, and alert friends to changes made on their online social networking profile.

“This feature makes it easier for registered members of the sites to share their favorite local businesses with their friends and the world across multiple sites at one time. For the small business owner, this creates additional and invaluable Internet exposure they would not otherwise get,” said Mary Beth Brendza, VP, Operations at The User-Friendly Phone Book and GoLocal247.com.

Facebook Connect allows Facebook members to easily transport their virtual identity and online network of friends from one site to the next without having to create a unique identity on each site a user visits. Facebook’s 2008 press release announcing the Facebook Connect feature says users who opt to use their Facebook login on third-party sites benefit from trusted authentication, dynamic privacy features and the ability to quickly share actions on partner sites with their network of friends on Facebook.

About GoLocal247.com

The GoLocal247 network is one of the fastest growing community-focused website companies in the country with Web sites in parts of California, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Ohio, Oklahoma and Texas. The company took the hyper-local approach by building community portals with a robust Yellow Page business directory. The first site launched in June 2008 and is now comprised of 32 local sites in eight states.

The heart of GoLocal247 is a robust Yellow Page business directory. Users can locate thousands of in-depth profiles on local businesses, rate and review them, and utilize money-savings coupons. They also can browse and post free classified ads, view and add events to the community calendar, and catch up on the latest news, entertainment and sports happening in the community and around the world.

Golocal247 is the internet division of The User-Friendly Phone Book, a portfolio company of VS&A Communications Partners III, LP — the private equity affiliate of media industry merchant bank Veronis Suhler Stevenson. Learn more about GoLocal247.com at www.golocal247.com. For more information about The User-Friendly Phone Book, visit www.ufpb.net.

The Woodlands, Texas – February 5, 2010 – The User-Friendly Phone Book, LLC today will begin helping small business owners connect with local consumers via social networking with the re-launch of its GoLocal247 platform.

The second version of the site upgrades the look and feel of the 32 hyperlocal Websites located in eight states, and also adds a completely integrated and locally focused social networking section to each site. Users who register with the site can become fans of their favorites businesses, rate and write reviews about local businesses, post free announcements and events, upload and view photos and share their thoughts in a blog.

Business owners benefit from the social network by being able to update their business’ profile and coupons whenever they want, communicate via the social network’s internal messaging system with the fans of their business, offer professional advice in the “Expert Tips”, and spread the word about a new product or service the business offers. Through the sites internal messaging system, business owners can offer exclusive discounts to their fans, alert fans about an upcoming event at their business, and ask their fans to take their word-of-mouth reviews to the Web by writing positive and thoughtful reviews on their business’ profile page.

“In most of the markets our sites currently cover, we are among the first truly local social network joined with an internet yellow pages directory,” said Mary Beth Brendza, VP, Operations at The User-Friendly Phone Book and GoLocal247.com. “We are excited about the volunteer, business, and social opportunities this virtual network brings to the community.”

The GoLocal247 network of sites is a one-stop shop for all things local – local business information, local events calendar, local job listings, local classified listings, local news, sports, weather, announcements, a place to connect with your family, friends, neighbors and favorite local businesses on the Web.

About GoLocal247.com

The GoLocal247 network is one of the fastest growing community-focused website companies in the country with Web sites in parts of California, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Ohio, Oklahoma and Texas. The company took the hyper-local approach by building community portals with a robust Yellow Page business directory. The first site launched in June 2008 and is now comprised of 32 local sites in eight states.

The heart of GoLocal247 is a robust Yellow Page business directory. Users can locate thousands of in-depth profiles on local businesses, rate and review them, and utilize money-savings coupons. They also can browse and post free classified ads, view and add events to the community calendar, and catch up on the latest news, entertainment and sports happening in the community and around the world.

Golocal247 is the internet division of The User-Friendly Phone Book, a portfolio company of VS&A Communications Partners III, LP — the private equity affiliate of media industry merchant bank Veronis Suhler Stevenson. Learn more about GoLocal247.com at www.golocal247.com. For more information about The User-Friendly Phone Book, visit www.ufpb.net.

I was recently updating Middletown Air’s profile and it got me thinking about web copy. Of all of the annoyances involved in setting up customer profiles and web sites, “coming up with good copy” has to be at the top of the list. In thinking about sites and profiles that have good copy vs. sites and profiles that have poor copy, here are a few points that you can keep in front of you to try and streamline the process. I’m sure that none of these items are earth shattering, but it is important to stay reminded of them in order to maximize the time that you have with clients and to minimize the time spent writing copy.

• Know who the customers are. The better you can define whom you are reaching, the easier it will be to judge if your content will be effective.
• Highlight what makes this company stand out against the competitors. The Internet is designed for comparison shopping. If you assume that the customer is reading several sites or profiles at the same time, you will realize what needs to be said in order to stand out.
• Focus on benefits. There are features and there are benefits. If you can drive home the benefits of using a company’s product or services, it will make an emotional connection that the reader will remember.
• Get to the point early. Don’t save your good content for the bottom of the page.
• Write in an informal or personal style. The Internet is a personal medium; try to avoid being too formal and stuffy.
• Keep your sentences simple. People scan online content; they don’t read it word for word. If you keep the style simple, readers will get the content quickly.
• Think of the keywords that users will search to access the content. Google and other search engines determine the keywords that they attach to a site by the content that they find there. If you want your customer to be found under “pool supplies” then you need to make sure that the headlines and content mention “pool supplies.”
• Consolidate and simplify.

Recently I’ve been asked several questions about choosing a great URL for clients. Sometimes it seems like all of the great URLs are already taken and there is no hope of finding an available good one outside of making it so long that users will risk carpal tunnel syndrome when typing the email address. Sure, it describes your business, and it is available but “twentyfourhourplumbingandairconditioninginoklahomacity.com” is probably not your best choice. Here are some recent questions and my thoughts.

From RioGrandeValley247.com

“When is it alright to use hyphens or underscores in a URL?”

Generally speaking, a professional URL should not have hyphens or underscores. It becomes difficult to remember and users will mistype email addresses and web names. If, however there is no other solution, a hyphen is much better than an underscore for a few reasons:

• People will assume a hyphen and even mistake an underscore for a hyphen.
• Many browsers make it difficult to see the underscore and users might assume it is a space.
• “Hyphen” is easier to say when you are telling someone the URL out loud.

A hyphen might actually be a good idea in a URL when the name of the company or the words in the URL might be reformed to create an unexpected word. A.C. Heating might not want the URL “acheating.com” even if it is available since your eye naturally goes to the word “cheating” and it will read “a cheating.” Not the kind of idea you want to place in the mind of potential customers. In this case “ac-heating.com” might be a better choice.
From OklahomaCity247.com

“Every URL for my customer is taken”

If your customer is in a market that has many web sites or if they have a very generic name, it might be difficult to find a URL that they can market. Let’s say that your client is “Great Plumbing.” Every way that you can spell those words is taken. Here are some ideas to still find a great URL.

1. Use the city or geography abreviation in the title. A quick survey on goDaddy reveals that Greatplumbingokc, 24hourplumbingokc and bestplumberokc are all available.
2. Use a URL that accentuates their key marketing terms. InAHurryOKC or FixItRightOKC are both available and would look good.

Brent Young
goWebDesign247

The Woodlands, Texas and Herndon, Virginia – July 7, 2009 – The User-Friendly Phone Book, LLC today announced it has signed an agreement with Intelligenx, Inc. to use the Discovery Engine TM local search platform. This dynamic platform will expand the robust capability of GoLocal247.com’s high-powered local search network, creating even more valuable exposure for SMBs.

The GoLocal247.com network consists of 27 community-focused websites in parts of California, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Ohio, Oklahoma and Texas. Online visitors of the GoLocal247.com network can search and find thousands of in-depth profiles on local businesses. Additionally, visitors gain addition high-value features, including the ability to rate and review businesses, download money-saving coupons, add events to the community calendar, and post free classified ads. Users can also catch up on the latest news, weather, entertainment and sports happening in their community. Discovery Engine TM will offer extensive search-and-filtering capabilities, state-of-the-art linguistics, and advanced search functionalities with nimble search results for these valuable end users.

The GoLocal247.com network of hyper-local portals utilizing a platform of this magnitude will offer an even deeper and richer search of business profiles, business reviews, coupons, classifieds and event listings available.

“We selected Intelligenx not just for its world class search technology but also because the company brings years of business search experience to the project” said Mary Beth Brendza, VP, Operations at UFPB. “Beyond technology, the people at Intelligenx will help us strategically to drive usage and help monetize our online and mobile traffic.”

“We are very pleased to be working with The User Friendly Phonebook” stated Azim Tejani, Chief Operating Officer of Intelligenx. “UFPB’s innovative approach to connecting communities is a terrific fit with our ability to enable interactive search and additional monetization potential.”

About GoLocal247.com and The User-Friendly Phone Book

The GoLocal24.com is the internet division of The User-Friendly Phone Book. The company – based in The Woodlands, Texas – was listed in Inc. Magazine’s Inc. 5000 stories of growth and ranked 846, with growth of 423.3% from 2004 through 2007. Additionally, User-Friendly was also ranked in the top 100 Advertising & Marketing Companies in the USA, according to Inc. Magazine’s September 1, 2008 issue. User-Friendly publishes 36 phone book directories in seven states.

The User-Friendly Phone Book is a portfolio company of VS&A Communications Partners III, LP, the private equity affiliate of media industry merchant bank Veronis Suhler Stevenson. Learn more about GoLocal247.com at www.golocal247.com. For more information about The User-Friendly Phone Book, visit www.ufpb.net.

About Intelligenx

Intelligenx is a leading provider of faceted search technology in the field of Internet Yellow Pages (IYP) and Local Search. Intelligenx’s search platform, Discovery Engine, combines highly scalable search and retrieval technology with a deep understanding of the nuances of Local Search including specific linguistics and semantic capabilities, and visualization tailored to provide consumers with the ultimate online local search experience. Intelligenx provides technology and related services for some of the largest yellow page publishers in the world looking to bridge the gap between print directories and the online search marketplace. Customers include Dex Media in the United States, Axesa Servicios de Informacion, S. en C. (formerly Verizon Information Services – Puerto Rico Inc., S. en C.) in Puerto Rico, De Telefoongids in the Netherlands, and Telkom Directory Services in South Africa. Intelligenx is headquartered in the Northern Virginia suburbs of Washington DC, with offices in Europe and South America. Learn more about Intelligenx at www.Intelligenx.com.