Local Business Lookup vs Obsidian Bases

Local Business Lookup

By Brave

Get detailed info on restaurants, shops, and services — hours, ratings, contact info, and more.

Obsidian Bases

By Steph Ango (Kepano / Obsidian)

Create database views over your Obsidian notes to track projects, tasks, and reading lists.

Local Business Lookup

• Retrieves full business details including hours, contact info, and addresses
• Shows customer ratings, review counts, and price ranges
• Calculates distance from your location when coordinates are provided
• Returns photos, cuisine types, and business categories
• Provides timezone and current day hours for planning visits

Obsidian Bases

• Creates table, card, list, or map views of your notes based on filters you set
• Lets you group and sort notes by any property (status, date, tags, folders)
• Calculates fields automatically like days until deadline or price totals
• Shows summaries like averages, sums, and counts across your filtered notes
• Works with your existing Obsidian notes without changing how you write them

Reach for Local Business Lookup when…

• You're researching local restaurants, shops, or services for a project
• You need to verify business hours or contact information
• You're comparing nearby options by rating, price, or distance
• You're building a list of vendors or locations for an event or campaign

Reach for Obsidian Bases when…

• You're managing projects or tasks in Obsidian and want a cleaner view than scattered notes
• You need to track reading lists, book notes, or research with custom filters and groupings
• You want to see calculated info like "days overdue" or "total budget" without manual updates
• You're organizing lots of notes and need different views (table vs cards) for different contexts