Facebook Tests Local Business Feature

By Melony Roy

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Facebook is taking on Yelp and Angie's List with a new feature for finding top rated local businesses.

Facebook is quietly testing a new feature called Facebook Professional Services.

The social network has compiled a searchable directory of service providers, like contractors, pet groomers, salons, and event planners.

The new site is simply laid out with a search box for the category of business you want to research. It defaults to your current location, pulling in a background image of the city in question.

For now, it's only available on desktop, though Facebook does offer a way to find local businesses on mobile through the "Nearby Places" feature.

With this new feature, Facebook is also competing with both Amazon and Google's recent moves to connect customers with local service providers in an effort to unseat industry giants like Angie's List and Yelp.