Service Providers, Car Owners
LAS VEGAS - Auto enthusiasts looking for specific car parts and accessories, and local service providers who can install them, now have a new Web site at their disposal.
Yahoo! Autos Custom features personalized gallery pages, a new Installer Search tool and online services that help users find and share automotive information.
?[The goal of the site] was really to bring the community of enthusiasts together to share ideas,? says David Leider, group category development officer, automotive, Yahoo! Inc. ?And then we?ve made it really easy for them to go and get [work] done through the installer search. Whatever the different automotive pieces, it?s really been set up to build off of the community, which is important to the enthusiasts. Recommendations are far more valuable than some kind of third party.?
Launched during the Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA) show in Las Vegas, the organization states that users can search across more than 1,000 automotive Web sites and search a directory of more than half a million automotive service businesses on the Yahoo! Autos Custom site. Leider says the core Yahoo! Autos site, which began in 1998, is focused on buying and selling new and used vehicles.
?We saw that there was a clear interest for people to be more engaged with parts in general,? he notes. ?And that combination of custom and autos really gives us a great one-two punch.?
Leider says the key to the installer search is Yahoo!?s partnership with SEMA.
?[The search tool] combines the SEMA membership base with over 500,000 installers in the Yahoo! Local base to locate installers in your area,? he explains. ?There is a ton of credibility by combining Yahoo! Local with the SEMA installer list.? An icon appears on the website next to the installers who are SEMA members.
Additional features of the Web site include user-created vehicle photo galleries, message boards and make/model narrowing. In the user-generated galleries, car enthusiasts can upload pictures of their own vehicles and provide details of the modifications they have made. Users are able to add tags to their vehicles, which are like keywords that help them find pictures that have something in common, such as rims or exhaust, Leider adds. ?The more people tag stuff, the more robust the community becomes.?
So far, the Yahoo! group is noticing more modification than repair work being shared. And although it?s too early to tell, Leider says Yahoo! anticipates favorable feedback from the installer community on the search feature. ?I think there is a ton of value for the aftermarket community.?
Visit the site at http://autos.yahoo.com/custom.
