This is interesting. However, from my perspective, I dont see this as a lack of 'provided solution by google', but rather a lack of plumbers even caring.

In the article: "But if you are going to buy cpc advertising, then you'll need a place for the clicks to go. The local ad agencies and local oriented web services are happy to create a web presence for local merchants, but they are often poorly designed and there's no standardization of them."

The real key here, then, is not having this service available, but making it easier/better/more cost effective for the local ad agencies and ad resellers to use this instead of their own (and inferior) existing pages.

Most of those places (ad agencies, local web services) charge a nice upfront premium for this -- a handy new cashcow. Good luck getting them to drop it in favor of a free google solution.

"Most of those places (ad agencies, local web services) charge a nice upfront premium for this -- a handy new cashcow. Good luck getting them to drop it in favor of a free google solution."

Sounds like an area ripe for competition. Can't beat Google's potential price point of free.

I don't want to get political here, but I would think Joe would want to get a license to be a plumber, or have his own business, or the means to buy one, before he started advertising.

Joe's a crummy example, in other words.

For local advertising the answer is an online solution that facilitate offline advertising. Think of ways Joe the Pumbler can use the internet to manage his offline advertising efforts.