Two weeks ago, eMarketer a great online source for market research and trend analysis on online marketing, media and emerging technologies published a report that covered the issues surrounding internet yellow pages and search engines.

According to one of their senior analysts, David Hallerman, when people use the Web to look for local retailers and service providers, they tend not to research by business categories as the print yellow pages are organized. Instead, they go to search engines, which rely on keywords and are far less structured than a yellow pages index.”

Local paid search spending will likely reach at least $4 billion in 2011, the article stated, and at that point, the distinctions between IYPs and search engines will become increasingly irrelevant as advertisers buy space on both types of sites with a single purchase.

Other studies, however, downplay the tendency away from yellow pages and toward search engines.

According to a recent JupiterResearch report, “Local Advertising: Blending Categories to Compete Effectively,” 59% of US local advertisers buy ads in print yellow pages and 45% go the IYPs, but only 26% engage in search marketing.

“Local marketers are not yet completely convinced about local search, one of their analysts said. The article notes how “in part, this is because local advertisers are used to yellow pages advertising, which requires little work on their part.”

“That the target audience for local yellow pages advertising does more of its searching online is clearly a force pushing local businesses to advertise online, whether it be with the yellow pages, search, local directories or newspapers,” Hallerman added.