Baidu, Qype, 2GIS, Yellow Pages Australia, Zomato & ParkMe are Now Part of the Localscope Family of Integrated Services

February 25, 2013

As we took off our journey with Localscope, deep in our hearts we knew that to make Localscope the best location browser, we had to make the experience truly local for users over the world. Though we started off with a very global perspective, we have always believed that strong localization would take Localscope beyond being useful; to being insightful. Our first step was to translate the app in prominent languages. Now, thanks to our team of 40+ expert linguists from across the globe, Localscope now speaks 21 languages.

While the diverse global services Localscope integrates with are giants in their respective fields and their collective knowledge covers the globe in a way where Localscope users can find local information anywhere irrespective of their physical location, we realized that to provide the most relevant local information, Localscope needs to talk to regional experts. Thanks to the great deal of feedback and helpful communication from our users, we are identifying and partnering with the best regional search engines, local directories and social networks in countries and regions where the users have strong preferences towards services that are specifically designed for their region.

To mark the first rollout of this endeavour, with v3.2 Localscope offers 6 new services for searching and discovering local information: Baidu, 2GIS, Qype, Yellow Pages Australia, Zomato and ParkMe. Each of these services are some of the most trusted and used services in their respective regions. They have a greater understanding of the local needs, language and culture as compared to some of the global services and hence proficiently deliver more relevant local content to users.

Renowned for providing the leading search technology optimized for local Chinese preferences, Baidu's integration with Localscope will help our users in China to now search for locally relevant information. 2GIS, brings to the table, the biggest Russian business directory that covers over 200 Russian and Ukranian cities. Localscope users can now browse the 2GIS directory to find localized information around their area in these countries.

One of the most requested source in Localscope, Qype, brings along the largest social reviews site for restaurants, places and businesses in Europe and South America. Localscope users in France, Germany, UK, Italy, Brazil, Mexico, Argentina and other countries in the European and South American regions can explore new local destinations in their native language, through crowd sourced listings in Qype.

Yellow Pages has been the most accessed local references across countries. Partnering with Sensis for Yellow Pages in Australia, gives Localscope users there a means to find what they want from the ever growing local information set of business listings. Zomato is the most popular directory of restaurants, clubs and other businesses in India and is quickly getting popular in many middle eastern countries. Localscope users in India, Sri Lanka, UAE, Qatar and UK can now discover new restaurants or search by a choice of cuisines using Zomato.

A very unique integration is the addition of ParkMe as a service within Localscope. ParkMe helps users find the cheapest daily and monthly parking spaces across 29 countries including the US, Canada, Europe & Australia. When at a new location or planning a visit to one, Localscope users can access ParkMe's parking database to find a suitable spot around the area.

v3.2 also packs in 5 more navigation app integrations to get turn-by-turn directions to a discovered location. These include - Yandex Navigator, Skobbler, Baidu Maps App, AMap by AutoNavi and The Transit App.

We have also improved results in Wikipedia, by dumping the not so great InfoChimps API for the awesome Wikilocation.org API. For the user this means better and more Wikipedia results that are now enriched with photos and results that are localized to 18 languages, so you can find articles around your location in your preferred language. Localscope now automatically delivers results from Wikipedia in the the default language of the users device.

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Since Google is phasing out the old Google Maps API, we have discovered some inconsistencies in the information provided by it. Hence starting v3.2, The Google+ Local source will now be available for free in Localscope. The older Google Maps source will still be present but disabled by default. Baidu and Qype integrations along with the Baidu Maps integrations too are available for free. The remaining services and integrations are available via Localscope Premium.

With this release we hope to further benefit everyday lives of users in different parts of our small world. We hope you enjoy using the new version. If you'd like to see a particular service, local or global, part of the Localscope family, simply write to us. We love to hear from you.

The new and updated version of Localscope is now globally available on the Apple App Store.