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If your business is located in USA and you would like to add your company details to local search (i.e. make a local listing so people can see you when searching the map), all you have to do is to go to http://listings.local.yahoo.com/. There you can have a ‘Basic Listing’ added for free!
What does a basic listing includes? It includes of a phone, address, and website !!!, business operating hours, your products and services. Not bad for a free of charge listing, isn’t it? God Bless America…

If you business is located in the UK and you would like to add its details to uk.local.yahoo.com… change the location mate, cause there isn’t easy, straightforward way of doing that.

Can’t I just add them at the same page Americans do?

No, you can’t do that. The only way to add your business details to a local UK Yahoo search is to go with the company that Yahoo have signed an agreement with in respects of managing ALL OF THE UK LOCAL LISTINGS- Infoserve Limited.

Have you ever heard of Infoserve Limited? Me neither and many of us did not until they called us.

About three days ago when I actually was shopping and had my office number redirected to my mobile phone, a nice lady called and said she was from …Infoserve – no!, she clearly said she was from YAHOO!!! WOW neither Google or Yahoo has ever called me before so I must admit I got a bit excited, but as I get tones of ’spam’ and con phone calls offering gold solutions to problems I don’t have, or offering business life changing advertisement deals I wanted to think it off and simply said I was in Tesco shopping and could not have a proper conversation with Yahoo while pushing my trolley. The lady gave up, but promised to call another, more convenient time. What a relief…for some time.

I then performed a quick Google search on the claimed ‘Yahoo’ number she called me from- 08453677200, and found out that it was not Yahoo’s number. The number belonged to Infoserve Limited.

I then added a free basic listing via Infoserve website and now I am waiting for more phone calls from them, as I bet they are not going to give up my money without fighting (i.e. the money which can buy ads or ‘bold’ listings through them).

Will I get listed for free? I don’t know and I don’t care. My websites statistics prove that I should not care too much.

For the past year 2009 only 3.73% of my taxi related websites visitors came from Yahoo. I can hear what could Infoserve salesman now say- so how many visits did you get 300 000? So 3.73% makes about 12000 visitors, we can improve that figure.

I honestly believe they can improve that figure. The question here is how much will it cost me or you to improve the number of visitors or callers and if it’s worth it or not. You see I focus on UK market and Brits are my targeted group and I simply don’t believe it is worth to spend a big money for adds on Yahoo in my niche, on the UK soil targeting UK customers, not for local search results. For me, it was Google who sent the most ‘leads’/users/callers last year and with new Google products coming this year- Chrome Books, and Chrome Web browser that 3.73% of total visitors on my websites that Yahoo sent me last year will probably shrink this year and a year after…

What are your thoughts?

Should have Yahoo let us add our business details to their local search listings database directly? Do you find phone calls from Infoserve enjoying, or were you happy with they approach and attitude when they called? Do you think its right for Infoserve employee to say they call from Yahoo, are they authorized by Yahoo to do that? Do you find it acceptable, or cheeky? Do you think it is good for Yahoo’s image to let a third party company deal with Yahoo’s local listings? And finally did you manage without being pushed to buy ads by Infoserve to add your FREE local UK Yahoo listing?

Are you looking for a cheap way to transfer from London to Gatwick, Stansted or Luton Airport?-  then read this article.

One of the cheapest shuttle services running from Central London to three of London Airports: Gatwick, Stansted and Luton is called easyBus. They provide London’s low-cost airport shuttle bus service. As far as I know it functions separately from well known easyJet airlines, so everybody, not just easyJet passengers may use it. At first, when they started I was convinced that they were targetting and serving easyJet customers only, but was not true . The service started just few years back and just like so called cheap airlines such as easyJet, RyanAir, WizzAir gained already many loyal customers. The question I would like to get an answer to is if easyBus really is the cheapest and most convenient way of travelling to and from London Gatwick Airport, Stansted Airport & Luton Airport?

How old do you have to be to drive a London bus, taxi or a private hire vehicle (i.e. minicab)- Age restrictions.

Minimum age to drive London Buses

Usual scenario for the minimum age for a London UK bus driver is 21. You must have on your license so called  ‘D’ category entitlement, or a ‘D+E’ entitlement if you want to be driving trailers which are heavier than 750 kilograms.

Saying a bus we mean a vehicle with more than eight passenger seats. There are however some exceptions.  As in many other fields Army gets some benefits. When you a a soldier, a member of armed forces you may drive a bus even when you only seventeen.

Those who are eighteen only can still obtain a D category which combined with a Certificate of Professional Competence (CPC) initial qualification will allow you to drive busses on routes which do not exceed 50 kilometers, this is about 30 miles and without passengers! So you can drive an empty bus for a maximum of 30 miles.

*Age 20 after passing a PCV test and Driver CPC initial qualification when driving on a regular service within Great Britain. The 50 kilometre restriction on the length of the route does not apply.

To get any further info on these restrictions its good to contact directly Driving Standard Agency. You may want to visit their website at: http://www.dsa.gov.uk/

Miniumum age to drive Taxis and Private Hire Vehicles (eg. minicabs, limousines)

Taxis are regulated in London by a body called Public Carriage Office which is now part of, or a branch of  Travel for London. Both Taxis and Private Hire Drivers must be at least 21 years of age in order to be granated either Hackney Carriage Taxi Driver license or a Private Hire Driver license.  There are no exceptions here, but councils outside Greater London might have and often have different rules and restrictions, so it’s best to check with your local council what is a minimum age for a taxi ar a minicab driver.