We all know about Google Maps and its constantly expanding and evolving services, including navigation, business finding, and its more recent street view – but what about other providers of business listing information?

One of these is Yell.com, the UK’s local business search engine, who have been busy working on their mapping and business finding service, ready for a major re-launch. The aim is to make searching through its 2 million businesses as easy as possible.

Mapping is provided through French mapping company Tridoo, using Navteq data, who have provided services for Yell.com supporting both conventional web based services as well as a mobile service supporting a large number of mobile devices including of course the Apple iPhone.

Yell.com should have an advantage over the larger providers as its information is more locally based and, one would expect, more up to date. One of the problems of Google Maps is, unless you live in a major urban area, the maps can get out of date quickly, so it will be interesting to see if Yell.com have a solution for this when it comes out of beta soon.

Once you find a local business, the Local Info Panel provides a useful list of nearby places split into clear categories including Parking (Car parks, Blue badge, Taxi Ranks, Bus stops) and transport, Local services (Toilets, Doctors, Dentists), and Local businesses (Hotels, Florists, Gyms, Pubs). As you zoom in and out of the map the Local Information panel updates with local information, and each point of interest is over-layed on the map.

To keep an eye on developments head on over to Yell.com.