Seeing Forests

I define Contextual Content as content that facilitates Local 2.0 decision-making.  Finding hotels around a Tube stop, restaurants near a park, grocery stores near a new apartment I’m considering, all of the content around something I’m looking for that is relevant to a local purchase intent is Contextual Content.   The battle is between algorithmic/linguistic search and knowledge-based solutions.  Algorithmic solutions can work for a lot of situations.  You can get a lot out of the layering of transportation networks within Google.  I have built many “itineraries” around tube/metro/subway stops in the cities I’ve been fortunate to visit lately (can’t share them like I’d like to though).  This clearly works for the concrete “objective” things like tranportation infrastructure.  It seems like it breaks down for the more ephemeral “subjective” things like “cool neighborhoods”.   With all the power Google has that may become moot but I believe that a sustainable comparative advantage exists in the ongoing development of Contextual Content for Local 2.0 and the blending of knowledge-based and algorithim-oriented search.