What Grayboxx does show is that there’s a lot of innovation left to uncover in search. Unlike Yelp, Yahoo Local, Google and other local review sites (including Google’s new local initiative), Grayboxx relies on its own data (again, confidential for now) instead of using page rank or relying on local user generated content. In a demo provided to us by founder Bob Chandra, we tested Grayboxx with random searches based on our local knowledge of which stores in Palo Alto were good or not.
When somebody searches for, say, Asian fusion restaurants in Palo Alto — of which there are many — Grayboxx points to the businesses its data suggests are the most popular. The results were on point for Palo Alto businesses — Tamarine for Asian fusion food, for example. Grayboxx also helped us find a new dry cleaners.
