Local search and local advertising have been at the forefront of many Web promotion discussions recently. SuperPages must have heard them loud and clear as they are now enabling local businesses to interact with their customers and promote their services through the new "Post a Business Reply" application.

Anyone (in a perfect world it would be the business owner) can post replies but they must be logged in to edit those reviews in the future. Businesses wishing to remain anonymous can reply directly to users through SuperPages but it will take a few days for the reply to appear. I worry a bit about the security of it all and how open the system could be to abuse. You must however give SuperPages a pat on the back for their effort and focus on building community.

SuperPages Review Listing from an actual user:

Businesses Post Their Reply to Users Through Superpages

In 2007, Superpages.com had 17 million small-to-medium-sized business listings in the United States, more than 10 million of which featured enhanced content. Also this past year, Superpages.com saw an increase of more than 2 billion network searches from 2006 to over 4.8 billion network searches. The success of our enhanced content is one of the factors distinguishing ourselves from the competition,” said Robyn Rose, vice president of marketing for Superpages.com. “Businesses are recognizing the power of user reviews and actively interacting with their customers.”