HelpHive.com Reloaded

There's trouble in River City.  Except in this case, River City is Seattle, WA, and the trouble concerns a local plumber and a start-up find-a-contractor site called HelpHive.com.

What is HelpHive?

My first brush with HelpHive.com was at Seattle Home Show 2.  In the sea of miracle gutter salesmen and instant log cabins was Dave Richards of HelpHive.com.  We spoke for a few minutes, and later I blogged about my disappointment over the years with find-a-contractor sites and tangentially about HelpHive.com.

The Issue

Later, plumbing contractor Evan Conklin posted comments on my blog about his dissatisfaction with HelpHive.com.  Then, HelpHive's own Karim Meghji posted a rejoinder. I will not go into depth--read the comments yourself--but the thrust of Mr. Conklin's argument is he believes that HelpHive is harvesting contractor information and diverting phone calls through HelpHive.com.

Why You Should Care

The best way to find a contractor is always to talk to neighbors and relatives:  word of mouth.  But in this world of diminishing word-of-mouth, we need an online solution.  My own thoughts on the issue are:

HelpHive.com's Side

• Harvesting information, while not a well-loved practice, is all over the Internet.  Anybody who has landed on a DexKnows, InsiderPages, or SuperPages while searching for a local tile installer has seen this.
• Don't the DexKnows-type harvesters eventually result in business for the end companies?
• HelpHive.com is a start-up.  Even though it appears to be a well-funded start-up, why kill a service that could result in sweeping changes in this whole find-a-contractor chaos?

Aggrieved Contractors' Side

• Disclosure.  The phone numbers listed on HelpHive.com do not clearly state--in fact, do not state at all--that the phone number is HelpHive's, not the contractors'.  If I landed on the site, I would think that the number belongs to the contractor.  Even Insider Pages lists the real phone number.
• Will HelpHive.com's SEO eventually trump the contractors' own search engine rankings?  Searching for Joe's Drywall Repair, the first listing is HelpHive's rather than Joe's?
• As my mother--or somebody's mother--might say, "A little sugar goes a long ways."  Nobody likes to be pre-empted.  Even if HelpHive.com finds that this type of phone number listing is the best way to go about things, why not at least notify or get permission from the contractors?

It's more complex than this, and I'm happy to be corrected in the comment section.   But it's the last I'll say on the matter.