The Vision
The Local Internet
The Internet made publishing global, but local business information remains fragmented across directories, search engines, social networks, maps, marketplaces, websites and emerging AI systems.
The Local Internet is a proposed shared infrastructure in which an authoritative Business Record can connect identity, locations, products, services, articles, offers, events, reviews and relationships — and then be selectively published through many independently governed surfaces.
Create once. Structure once. Verify once. Distribute selectively.
How it fits together
- 01One Business Record
- 02Shared data
- 03Independent publication
- 04Many digital surfaces
- 05Humans, search engines and AI agents
This is a proposal and a work in progress, not a finished platform. What exists today is a shared application, a shared database and a public demonstration of independent publication across configured surfaces.
The nine parts
- 01
The problem
Local business information is fragmented across directories, search engines, social networks, maps, marketplaces, websites and emerging AI systems. Every platform rebuilds the same entity from scratch, and the business itself rarely controls any of it.
- 02
The Business Record
A structured, verifiable representation of a business: identity, locations, hours, categories, products, services, offers, events, articles, reviews, media, relationships and provenance — maintained in one place.
- 03
The shared database
A single application and database holds the record. Surfaces read from it rather than each holding a private copy, so a correction made once can appear everywhere it is published.
- 04
The geographic architecture
Country, state, county, city, region and community organized as predictable, addressable nodes. A structure a person can guess is a structure a machine can traverse.
- 05
The surface model
Each surface stays independently governed: it decides which records are eligible, which are published, and how they are placed. Shared data does not mean uniform publication.
- 06
The marketplace distribution layer
Existing marketplace properties become distribution for records rather than isolated silos of listings — the same entity presented in context, in many places.
- 07
Search and API possibilities
Once records are structured and addressable, search and programmatic access become natural extensions rather than separate products.
- 08
AI-readable and agent-ready information
Machines need entities, provenance and stable addresses. Records designed for citation give AI systems and agents something reliable to read and act on.
- 09
Long-term vision
An interconnected layer of local information where identity is owned by the business, distribution is selective, and discovery works for people, search engines and agents alike.