Ideas

Can you explain more about the tags and zones? I can't quite picture how this would work. How would you aggregate the data? Would you create a new standard for companies to follow? Is there an existing one?

I think we'd all like something like this, but I'm not following how the implementation can happen.

Tags and Zones explained.

At the top level, a provider of a service could select from a drop list for the country, counties they provide a service to. For defining the local area, this could be by zip, postcode or whatever.

Alternatively, the provider could use a map based tool to draw a circle or freeform polygon on a map to show their area of service at the local rate. At the time the polygon is drawn, a mapping relationship is set up with all the postcodes within that polygon so that when someone from one of those postcodes searches then there is no further calculation requied.

thanks for the feedback!

I understand the concept. However, this is being done at a local scale like baidu in China, guruji search in India etc. The value prop in the idea needs work.

I get it. This is similar to a question that was posed at a BBC innovation day I attended - "What is local?". My idea was that local is a personal definition and should be expressed by drawing a shape (or shapes) on a map.

This goes the next step on from telling you how far a provider is based from you, it allows the provider to say whether they are likely to be available to you.
It might be an idea to allow a "fuzziness factor" e.g. the provider could set an additional area outside the first in which they would "possibly" provide their service. This would give more options to the end user with a built-in relevance for the search returns.

Nothing that has not been done somewhere else.