Brownbook.net, the open local business directory for small and large businesses
 

Brownbook Celebrates its First Birthday and a Year of Sustained Growth

June 18, 2009

Free free global business directory that anyone can edit now lists 28 million businesses worldwide

United Kingdom: Brownbook.net, the free global business directory that anyone can edit, is celebrating its first year in business; a year of sustained growth. Today, the site continues to thrive, with thousands of businesses being added, worldwide, every week. The international distribution of listed businesses can be seen here: http://www.brownbook.net/countries.

Brownbook also regularly enjoys positive reviews about the site; these left, for example, on Brownbook’s own listing page:

“Love it… Love it… Love it. This is SEO magic for the uninitiated. Simple, quick and powerful. Love it! Have recommended BrownBook to ALL my friends! Actor Expo Team, www.actorexpo.co.uk, May 25, 2009 17.23”

“I had a wonderful review of my business appear on my [Brownbook listing] a few days after signing up for your service. It was an unsolicited endorsement from a business associate. Right on! May 22, 2009 11.06”

Marc Lyne, co-founder: “We are currently listing 28 million businesses from all around the world. One of the reasons for Brownbook’s success, I would say, is that we never stop providing innovative new features to businesses, helping them to get found online. This keeps the site fresh and on its toes. Here are 2 of our latest enhancements, for example:

1. Stats counters and stat graph on every businesses page; plus a global stats league table, since May 5, 2009, here: http://www.brownbook.net/user/hof/top-viewed-profiles

2. Bidget (Business Widget) for reviews. Now anyone can add their reviews that appear on Brownbook to any other website, blog or forum. See an example here: the Brownbook page for Onedrywash: http://www.brownbook.net/business/31008544/sjk-products-ltd, and their Brownbook reviews which they have placed on their own blog: http://onedrywash.blogspot.com

Brownbook V18 live today

May 5, 2009

Brownbook V18 went live today, with a couple of changes which I’ll outline here.  Aside from a whole heap of back-end stuff, the key front-end improvements revolve around the customizable business pages.

When you add new information to your business profile page (e.g. text, images, videos, widgets, etc) you can now choose to show or hide the unit titles, show or hide the unit borders, and edit the titles on most of the units.  If you already have a customized page go have a play.  On the face of it that sounds kinda small, but the result is your business profile page now looks rather more ‘clean’.  You can take a look at a few examples here:

Kosibah Creations Ltd – all borders showing, all titles showing

Woodland Skills – all borders showing, all titles showing

and our own Brownbook – some borders hidden, some titles hidden, some titles edited

Have fun

Dave

How to get the most out of Brownbook

December 11, 2008

Here are two videos from Dave that tell you how to make the most of your business listing on Brownbook – hints and tips, what to look out for and what really works:

And part 2…

An interesting listing of other web2.0 yellow pages

January 11, 2008

I just had the pleasure of speaking with Yanir Allouche the owner of www.bizbee.co.uk

The site has a listing of web2.0 yellow pages services, plus a newsroom and discussion forum. Its a useful resource of information on a subject dear to our hearts.

I can’t sleep

January 7, 2008

Big is The New Small (cover art)I can’t sleep tonight. I can’t sleep because my mind is racing concerning the impact of peer-produced projects like The Brownbook. I decided to pick a book of my bookshelf, one of those I bought recently but haven’t yet got round to reading. The book is “Small is The New Big” by Seth Godin (www.sethgodin.com). Please allow Read the rest of this entry »