In 2006, when Jason McDowall began developing content for a website he said would become the Google of the Caribbean, there were those who stifled a smile and thought ‘good luck.’

McDowall, along with his wife and a small team in the Netherlands, spent the next three years building the site, adding content about The Bahamas one business, one phone number, one item at a time.

Just over a decade since the drudgery that would turn a young man’s dream into reality with his company Caribbean Local launching BahamasLocal.com, the largest and most frequently used Bahamian website in The Bahamas with more than 510,000 unique visitors and over 28 million hits per month.

“We had a single investor who came on board in 2007, Dayne D’Aguilar."  We opened our office in Nassau, hired three College of The Bahamas students to continue entering data and launched in 2009 with a single advertiser,” said McDowall.

“Today we have a staff of seven, and are the most recognized Bahamian website in The Bahamas. Our banner ads have just surpassed 23 billion views.”

BahamasLocal.com, the source for local news, movie reviews and schedules, contact information for more than 20,000 businesses, is considered the Google of The Bahamas and the site that started out with a single advertiser now has had more than 550 clients.

Its business listings are clicked on over 1.5 million times per month and news it posts is read more than 900,000 times a month.

While McDowall does his own photography and attends more events than most politicians, he relies on legitimate news sent to him by reliable sources.

Unlike sports heroes and celebrity-chasing sites like TMZ, BahamasLocal.com does not have a bevy of reporters digging for dirt or hot news.

Its focus is fact.

Where to find what you want and how to reach that business, eatery, school or service provider with the greatest ease. It’s a formula that clearly works in this environment.

And if the general public depends on the site for everything from movie reviews to holiday hours, its presence is viewed as critical for the business community.

“BahamasLocal.com is our definite go-to site,” said Bahamas Chamber of Commerce and Employers’ Confederation CEO Edison Sumner.  “Not only do our members benefit from it because the information about their business is posted and people can get easy access to numbers, e-mail and the like, but we rely on it." "As extensive as our database is, we still turn to BahamasLocal.com to substantiate what we have.”

According to the Chamber’s leader, McDowall has been a pioneer, helping to develop programs for others and in particular for the underprivileged.

“The Chamber endorses and appreciates Jason McDowall and BahamasLocal.com,” Sumner said.

“We have always worked well with Jason. He gives of his time and his personal resources to help develop other people’s programs and is especially helpful in developing programs for the underprivileged. He has a wonderful desire to see all businesses succeed in the country and that is a very positive, unselfish position to take.”

McDowall’s next step – BonaireLocal.com.

“I can’t say when but it will be soon,” says the Scottish-born sportsman who also serves on the local Bahamas Football Association board.

“As for now, BahamasLocal.com is updated in The Bahamas by Bahamians every day and we have lots of plans for the future.”