Online Consumer Advice, Neighbor to Neighbor

Amy Daniels was no slouch when it came to mining Web sites and phone directories for vendors and merchants. Whatever the McLean native needed on a given day -- plumber, mechanic, landscaper, piano teacher, financial adviser -- she could quickly track down phone numbers and compare quotes.

As a busy mother of two young children, though, Daniels didn't have time to toggle between Web sites and make a dozen calls every time she needed a service. After finding out that other time-starved parents and professionals felt similar frustrations, she started LocalNeighbors.com, a Web site that lets people search for local businesses, view their profiles, ask them questions and schedule appointments all in the same place.

She calls it the "one-stop shop for daily living." Businesses pay a small fee to be included in the site, enabling them to post articles and share tips to attract customers. Users of the free site can peruse the listings, post inquiries and have conversations with other people looking for similar services. With its personalized pages and interactive features, Local Neighbors can be described as the intersection of the Yellow Pages and MySpace, a popular online networking hub.

"This is a way to get to know the service providers before picking up the phone and calling them," said Daniels, 39. "People buy from people, not businesses. I had to think of a way to humanize the business directory and minimize the steps involved in finding the right person."

The site launched two weeks ago, and Daniels's seven-person development team is signing up businesses and consumers. Right now she's focused on creating a comprehensive network in the Washington area, but she hopes to expand to 24 other metropolitan markets within the next two years.

Daniels, who graduated from Virginia Tech and got her MBA from the University of Dallas, was a Fortune 500 company project manager for 15 years, an experience she said gave her the expertise she needed to start her own venture. She wants to let the members decide how the site will evolve and what features are most useful to them.

"We're limited by the number of people we know," she said. "This increases your network size and lets you learn from others who have looked for similar things."

Click-to-Call Catching On

Putting customers in touch with the service providers they need at the exact moment they need help is becoming increasingly important to businesses as more people make purchases and find vendors online. To prevent customers from abandoning a site or a sale because they run into problems or have a question, companies are now using a "click-to-call" feature, which lets people call a customer service agent directly by clicking an icon on the page.

Reston-based eStara Inc., which provides click-to-call technology for Amazon.com, Dell, Apple Computer and Continental Airlines, is finding the service in high demand. The seven-year-old company announced last week that it will be acquired by Art Technology Group, a Cambridge, Mass., maker of e-commerce software. John Federman, eStara's chief executive, said the $48.3 million sale is a sign that retailers are "serious about deepening this kind of connection with customers."

"Not only are we seeing our own customers continue to use this feature, but we're seeing more and more adoption among Internet companies all over," Federman said.

The uptick in the use of click-to-call, also known as pay-per-call, technology is growing quickly, thanks to Google. The company recently partnered with eBay to integrate click-to-call features in Google's text ads starting next year. Google and eBay customers will use Skype or Google Talk to communicate with an advertiser or customer.

Kim Hart can be reached athartk@washpost.com.