GetList.org Local University in Minneapolis is coming up on May 13th at the Westin Edina Galleria and there will be an AM and one PM session. As always the Twin Cities event will be focused on providing the small business person with an overview of marketing their business on the web.
The regular cost is $129 but the discount of $40 is still available (use discount code MB). To register visit our Twin Cities page…
Google Maps has been updating a number of features of late, some small and some not so small.
Here is a detail of the upgrade that was pointed out to me by Alice, one of PureSheer’s staff where Google is now including a great deal of interesting history of community edits. If you edit a non-claimed listing, Google is now presenting an incredibly detailed edit history :
What is so fascinating about this history is that it includes opinions (one presumes algorythmically derivded) about the quality of the edits AND the quality of the editor…
Yesterday, Nielson reported the March 2010 U.S. search rankings. It included the normal stuff…Google has a 65.7 market share, Yahoo’s down, Bing is up….
Of more interest to me was the reported fact that there were 6,387,932,000 (6.4 billion) searches on Google in March. Last week, Google noted in their Google Places rebranding of the the LBC that 20% the searches on Google had local intent…
Today on the Lat-Long Blog, Google has announced that they are now using their own underlying geo data instead of TeleAtlas data. The move mirrors the move made in the US when Google replaced TeleAtlas data in October 2009.
Here is their announcement:
The map of Canada is constantly changing – new roads are being built, highways are being renamed, and bike trails are opening…
Allows User to Call Friends, Speak to Them
SILICON VALLEY (The Borowitz Report) – A new social network is about to alter the playing field of the social media world, and it’s called PhoneBook.
According to its creators, who invented the network in their dorm room at Berkeley, PhoneBook is the game-changer that will leave Facebook, Twitter and even the much anticipated Google Buzz in a cloud of dust…
Google continues to roll out new features to Google Maps, having added 3D Google Earth view to Google Maps.
View Larger Map
In June, 2009, I noted in speaking on the Google Earth like future of Google Maps:
It portends a day in the not too distant future when the browser by default, handles the complexities of a 3D geo environment with ease and speed. It points towards a rich mapping environment where Google Maps takes on the sophistication of Google Earth but inside the browser…
Google has recently added a new section to the Google Places quality guidelines concerning Custom Attributes & Description fields. From the updated guidelines (bold is mine):
Custom Attributes & Description
Google Places recently added the ability for a business to create a printable QR code for their business that takes a user to their Places Page. In today’s Lat-Long blog post Google is suggesting the following possible uses for the code:
Social & Search is holding a contest to introduce the search marketing & social media community to multiple blogs in various different genres and online marketing disciplines.
Understanding Google Maps and Local Search has been nominated in the Best Local Blog category along with:
Small Business SEM
David Mihm
Directions Mag
Google Maps Mania
The final tally will be taken on May 1st and then winners will be announced on May 3rd, during an awards ceremony at the Search & Social Spring Summit in Tampa, FL…
Google Maps Guide Brianna (highlighted by Barry Schwartz) noted in the new forums that restaurants (and hotels) can add discreet links to menus and reservations. This is done by adding a field with a specific label (either Menus or Reservations) to the Additional Details section of your Places account and inserting the appropriate URL. You can see an example of a linked Additional Detail field in the Place Page listing for Lombardi’s Pizza…
Yesterday, I criticized Google for removing the Verification Issues Topic from the forums. This is obviously a very obvious point of friction between the SMB and Local Business Center Google Places management area. Verification issue after phone call or post card is requested, goes wrong often enough that a number of SMBs are left without an active listing and not a clue as to how to proceed. The forums never offered a great way to solve the issue as only Google could “fix it”…
As part of Google’s rebranding of the Local Business Center to Google Places, they have created a new help area and a totally new forum area for uses of the Google Places center.
The forum move is particularly dramatic and likely to be very disruptive. Google has archived the very active threads relating to LBC issues and replaced them with a single thread.
Here are the threads in the new forum:
Discuss how to optimize your Place page
Discuss adding new features to your Place page listing
Discuss Google Places issues with other users
These threads replaced:
Archived: Local Listing Issues
Archived: Verification Issues
On the one hand, breaking out the recreational and business users of Maps makes sense…
Google announced earlier today, the rebranding of the Local Business Center as Google Places. As part of this rebranding Google has:
-Expanded availability and rebranded their fixed price enhanced listing feature as “Tags”. It appears to have moved from a test to a permanent foray into a simple fixed priced ($25/mo) SMB product.
-Added the ability for business owners to more easily generate KML files and Location maps for their websites from within the Dashboard…
Cathy Rhulloda created this video using the Google SearchStories feature on YouTube. Search on, indeed.
…
I love Google Maps even though it seems that most every day with Google Maps is a Good News, Bad News sort of day. Do you want the Good News first or the Bad News?
The Good News is that Rogers, MN, the poster child for lost Google towns, has found its rightful place in the pantheon of American towns…it is once again visible on Google Maps after being missing for 27 days and some odd hours…
This talk, The New Meaning of Mapping, was given last week by Michael Jones, Google’s Chief Technology Advocate, at theWhere2.0 conference. Previously he was Chief Technologist of Google Maps, Earth, and Local Search and was originally responsible for development of the technology used in the creation of Google Earth. The presentation includes a number of interesting nuggets
I am not an Adwords expert and do not follow closely the issues around brand integrity etc with Adwords. I do know that Google has been criticized in the past for being too liberal in allowing others to leverage a brand and also they have been criticized (although exonerated) for allowing deceptive ads to be shown.
I find it ironic that they should in fact suffer the same fate with their ads promoting the Local Business Center…
I received this email from Yelp today announcing increased transparency around filtered reviews, the end of the “Favorite Review” option for advertisers and a SMB advisory council.
Here is the email that was sent:
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This Week: About that Review Filter…
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A few weeks ago, we directed you to a detailed explanation ( http://bit…
The Google Maps team will be offering a brief 45 minute webinar about the basics of the Local Business Center with a focus on Local Business Center for small businesses. It will cover:
- adding and verifying your local business listing to Google
- creating a great listing
- frequently asked questions
You will need to sign up on this form so that Google can send you an email invitation. Sign-ups close Friday, April 9, 2010…
Getlisted.org Local University is rolling into Cleveland at the end of June! In partnership with the Karcher Group, NEOSA and Anita Campbell, it promises to be a great event.
The Karcher Group, a strong web development & marketing group in the Akron/Canton area, contacted us in January shortly after Spokane was announced. Anita Campbell, an incredible small business consultant and blogger, agreed to help out shortly after and Brad Nellis of NEOSA, North East Ohio’s premier technology promotion group, has also stepped in as a major sponsor…
Apparently the citizens of Rogers, MN have created an on-line petition requesting that Google, renamed Topeka in honor of April 1, be renamed as Rogers until the town has been found on Google Maps.
Their petition states:
We, the people of Rogers, MN are looking to be found on Google Maps. Google seems to have misplaced us.
If Google finds the job too difficult then we would demand equal time to the wannabe town of Topeka and request that Google changes their name to Rogers in celebration of our existence…
Yesterday I highlighted a review service that was managing the review process for SMBs and posting the good ones into Google, Yahoo etc… an idea that is sure to have a short shelf life and one that is not a good long term strategy. Well here is another.
Aggressive marketers often engage their mouth long before any cognitive activity has taken place. This is an example of that and makes one realize why the process of review gathering is often referred to as “solicitation”…
Over the past few weeks, I detailed several successful ways to generate reviews. I promised at the time to detail some ways that I think are ultimately bound to failure. Here is one.
ReviewBoost claims to “Authenticate and Publish positive reviews across the Internet, maximizing online reputation for businesses of any size.” They claim to “publish reviews on partner sites like Yahoo, Yellow pages, Super pages, City Squares” and to do “review syndication and broadcasting on Google search Network” (whatever that might mean…
According to the NY Times (http://s.nyt.com/u/Q6T), Alan Davidson, director of United States public policy for Google, while testifying before congress, is noted as saying:
“censorship had become more than a human rights issue and was hurting profit for foreign companies.”
Is Google so self focused that they would elevate even $1 of their profit over human rights? Did the NY Times misquote him? Was this really his position? That Google’s profit was more important than human rights?
If this was in fact said and what was meant, this man either needs a basic lesson in Enlighment thinking or a new speech writer…
I recently received this email from the Google Local Business Center:
****
Google Apps helps you focus more on your business, less on IT hassles
As a small business owner, you don’t want to spend additional time, money and energy on IT hassles. That’s why the Local Business Center team would like to introduce you to Google Apps Standard Edition, our suite of free, easy-to-use online messaging and collaboration tools for businesses like yours…
I am frequently asked: Which reviews sites should I send my clients to? Which one should I pick?
My answer: think about your customers needs first (easy, choice), think about your business needs second (leverage) and consider using as many sites as make sense.
I asked this question of David Mihm, Local SEO expert, and his response was:
The syndication value of reviews on well-spidered portals like Citysearch, InsiderPages, and DexKnows appears to me to outweigh any special ranking given to Google’s own reviews (which are of course not syndicated)…
As I noted last week, Google Maps has managed to loose (more or less) the town of Rogers, MN….their report a problem feature notes that Map corrections take 30 days.
This widget will keep track of how long it actually takes for Google to find Rogers…the clock has started! Will they meet their self imposed deadline? Will Rogers ever find its way back to the 7-Pack? Will they find the real Rogers? Stop back next week to learn the exciting conclusion to this and other mysteries…
In August last year, Google Maps added icons and labels of prominent businesses and places of interest directly onto Google Maps in the form of a small icon. In the Google Maps discussion groups there has been a number of (angry) questions as to exactly how a business could get their icon embedded in the base layer of Google Maps. Until today, Google’s only answer was that businesses were given an icon based on the secret sauce of Place Rank…
Wikipedia seems to know, Mapquest knows, Bing knows, even Google Organic seems to know something that is a secret to Google Maps & Google Universal results – the whereabouts of Rogers, MN.
Well its not exactly true that Google Maps doesn’t know where Rogers is. It is apparently more complex than that. But real life often is. The result though is the same.
The Cabellas store that is in Rogers, MN can’t be found by Google (it sends you to Owatonna, MN)…
You're looking at my set of tools. The custom search engine helps me find the answers to questions more quickly. The RSS aggregator keeps me updated with industry news that matters. And, in the near future, I plan on documenting the major steps and considerations used in SEM as a check list (although it will also work well as a list of tutorials).
While I built (and am improving) the above tools for myself, it seemed like a waste to keep them to myself. After all, good will breeds good will, and perhaps you'll even help me find more great blogs to follow.
In the name of good karma, all my outgoing links on this site are followed. Treat others as you wish to be treated, right? Besides, I think the authors who we read daily deserve all the thanks (links) we can give.
I hope you find the SEM News feed and the free SEO search tool helpful.
- Brett at SEMNewsDaily.com
