founded la crescenta california u.s. 1995 headquarters 8833 w. sunset blvd. west hollywood california u.s. area served united states key people president products citysearch.com pay for performance advertising parent iac website citysearch.com citysearch is an online city guide that provides information about businesses in the categories of dining entertainment retail travel and professional services in cities throughout the united states . visitors to each of citysearch s local city guides will find contact information maps driving directions editorial and user reviews for the businesses listed . citysearch is headquartered in west hollywood california and is an owned and operated web site of citygrid media which is an operating business of iac nasdaq iaci . 1 2 the original office was in pasadena california . citation needed citysearch was founded in september 1995 by jeffrey brewer caskey dickson brad haaugard taylor wescoatt and tamar halpern . charles conn was then recruited to lead the new company . the idea initiative and seed capital came initially from bill gross . citation needed in august 1998 citysearch merged with ticketmaster online . 3 in july 1999 citysearch acquired the competing sidewalk.com website from microsoft 4 and merged the two sites together . in december 1999 ticketmaster citysearch received a 40 million investment from usa networks inc. then controlled by barry diller . 5 in 2007 another competitor insider pages was acquired . 6 in june 2010 citysearch llc rebranded as citygrid media . the flagship product of citygrid media is citygrid a content and ad network for local . citygrid media also owns and operates leading local consumer properties which include citysearch insider pages and urbanspoon . 7 while many local search sites mushroomed in the 21st century citysearch s biggest competition comes from the fast growing yelp inc. in the late 2000 s yelp was growing at 80 % while citysearch growth remained flat . 8 local search engines from bing google and yahoo are also widely used alternatives to finding local businesses on the internet . contents 1 best of citysearch 2 criticism 3 top citysearch sites 4 references 5 external links best of citysearch edit best of citysearch is a feature that gives locals an opportunity to vote for their favorite businesses in popular categories such as restaurants nightlife hotels and services . citysearch opens up its annual polls with nominations from editors . throughout the voting period visitors to the site cast votes for their favorite local business . after the polls close the top ten businesses in each category are revealed to their cities . criticism edit in 2005 citysearch was criticized by a blogger for their alleged inflation 9 of user submitted ratings and reviews . citysearch has since updated their ratings system . citysearch has also stated that they have the right to refuse to post or to remove any user review that violates the terms of use . reviews that are subject to removal include unacceptable content such as profanity personal information promotion of illegal activity and harmful content . 10 in november 2007 citysearch partnered with merchantcircle 11 a company that conducts automated telemarketing to small businesses to sell them online advertising packages . users have criticized citysearch for deleting and censoring genuine reviews but taking little to no action against fake reviews . after registering citysearch offers no apparent option for closing one s account . citysearch is also criticized because they allow negative reviews even if the reviewer has not utilized the business being reviewed . they then refuse to remove the content or delist the individual being defamed . in 2014 businesses still complain that citysearch continues to operate as if it has no liability for false and defamatory comments posted against the businesses that citysearch lists on its site . businesses complain that citysearch lists their businesses on their site against the wishes of and without the permission of the businesses and then permits false and defamatory comments to be posted against the businesses . the society of st francis animal shelter is one of the businesses that is contemplating legal action to recover damages that the shelter alleges it received by being listed against its will on citysearch and on citysearch s insider pages . the animal shelter complains that insider pages and city search provided a forum for the no kill shelter to be harassed and stalked by individuals who used fake and incomplete names to make false and defamatory comments about the shelter . st. francis is no stranger to defamation actions . it successfully had an internet site removed after suing the owner of the site for defamation . top citysearch sites edit new york los angeles san francisco boston chicago atlanta dallas seattle houston twin cities austin references edit citysearch . crunchbase . citygrid media . crunchbase . ipo daily report citysearch to merge with ticketmaster online 8 13 98 . marketwatch . retrieved 20 september 2016 . microsoft sells off sidewalk sites to rival citysearch . bnet . 1999 07 20 . retrieved 2008 07 03 . ticketmaster online citysearch receives 40 million investment from usa networks inc. . prnewswire . retrieved 20 september 2016 . troubled insider pages acquired by citysearch . techcrunch . 2007 03 01 . retrieved 2008 07 03 . citysearch recasts itself as citygrid media . techcrunch . 2010 06 02 . retrieved 2010 06 02 . schonfeld erick sep 2 2009 . yelp is growing 80 percent a year while citysearch remains flat . techcrunch . retrieved 2 may 2014 . normalize citysearch rankings with greasemonkey . dewitt clinton . 2005 10 05 . retrieved 2008 07 03 . citysearch terms of use search engine watch nov 29 2007 external links edit citysearch v t e webby awards winner 1998 award in the category travel awards ceremonies 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 list of winners v t e iac match group blackpeoplemeet.com chemistry.com delightful friendscout24 howaboutwe match.com meetic group okcupid ourtime people media plentyoffish tinder the princeton review tutor.com twoo iac publishing about.com ask.com citygrid dictionary.com investopedia the daily beast iac applications apalon slimware ask applications video collegehumor dailyburn electus iac films notional vimeo homeadvisor homeadvisor other shoebuy.com retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title citysearch & oldid 740352274 categories review websitescompanies based in los angeles county californiainternet companies of the united statesiac company webby award winnershidden categories pages using infobox company with unsupported parametersall articles with unsourced statementsarticles with unsourced statements from december 2014articles with unsourced statements from june 2009 navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate 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