The truth is that so few local businesses have an internet presence in my commumity that it's rarely worth searching online. I still have to drag out the Yellow Pages to locate a particular type of business, unless I'm willing to just do one of the malls and "hope" what I need will be there. Unfortunately, most of the advertising flyers nor the yellow pages have national chains' phone numbers listed; so, I still can't find what I need. Although, the phonebook has developed better category directories, such as restaurants by ethnic food type and some full menus.
I can't even get the local movie theatres through local listings online -- I have to use
www.hollywood.com and its directory to find which movcies are playing where and when (and we have both a Hoyt's multiplex and an AMC multiplex). Neither have a web presence.
I'd like to see the local Grocery chains have their weekly ads up online. I don't both to pick up my mail weekly and never have current ads. I'm pretty much dependent on moodswings and knowledge of which store carries which type of thing I'm interested in -- and have my "savers" barcode card to take advantage of any sales.
It's only been during the past couple of months that one could pay their Verizon phonebill online. I still can't pay most of my other utilities online. We're a long way from a dependable and reliable spectrum of local business needs being online.