With the recent rollout of Add a Place to Map , allowing everyone to add a listing to maps with its more flexible categorization structure, Google has also upgraded the categorization system in the Local Business Center.
This upgrade comes in response to 18 months of complaints in the Google Maps for Business Group. The all too common refrain: Why can’t I be in the same category as my competitor, will no longer be heard. The very limited and limiting system previously used by Google forced unusual workarounds for businesses that did not fit into the small number of categories. In a February 22nd interview with Carter Maslan, Maps Product Management Director, he indicated that this category upgrade was in the works.
The new categorization system still allows only 5 category entries per business. They can however, be from a much larger list of Google provided suggestions or entered in an ad-hoc fashion in any way that the business owner wishes. Under the previous category system there was but one category choicein the insurance area: Services - Insurance (to see a list of all previous categories)
There are similar suggestions in every business category area. This increased category flexibility also open new possibilities for spam. For lack of a better term, this CatSpam could affect rankings and listings as much as previous Maspamming techniques of Business Title manipulation, location & address manipulation, bulk upload abuse, phone book listing capers and sophisticated combination tactics.
However in the interview with Maslan in February, it was obvious that Google is aware of this possibility:
He felt that over the long haul the best solution was to allow the users to make corrections to the listings and then have some way to make that visible in the ranking. They are definitely pursuing more user input which he hoped would provide an ultimate reduction of the frustration levels. They are also putting in place techniques to prevent abuse. Their general philosophy is that there are more good people than bad but that the bad are very motivated, and that with the right balance of technology they can have high confidence in the data.
This past Sunday, on the Google Operating System Blog, Matt Cutts commented:
I would assume that Google is going to take mapspam quite seriously. I invited someone from the local team to discuss the subject in depth with my entire team just last week, for example, and we talked about lots of ways to work together. So my personal advice would be to make sure that your business name/category is accurate.
Ominous advice for sure. It will be interesting to see how this is policed and managed in the coming months as significantly more data flows into Maps from users and business owners alike.
[...] Google Local Business Center Upgrade -Unlimited Category Options [...]
Pingback by Everything about Google Maps « Screenwerk — March 19, 2008 @ 10:06 am
very interesting stuff! good to hear MC is involved now too, regarding the spam issues.
I do like the category suggest option. Would like to see some research on how to select the most appropriate categories that suits your business in high competitive markets and thus categories.
As with the Maps upgrade, this upgrade to the LBC isn’t available outside US/australia/NZ just yet.
Comment by martijn — March 19, 2008 @ 10:25 am
Hi Martin
Thanks, I forgot to mention the geographic limitations.
Yes, how the new categories affect ranking is an important question. A big, cumbersome question that could take quite a bit of research. Now what was your credit card number again?
Mike
Comment by Mike Blumenthal — March 19, 2008 @ 11:24 am
for the moment i’ll just stick with reading your blog and interact as much as i can by sharing my piece of mind.
when the LBC categories will be available for Europe i’ll get my hands dirty asap
Comment by martijn — March 19, 2008 @ 12:05 pm
I would love to share research with you. When you do get ready to work on it let me know.
Mike
Comment by Mike Blumenthal — March 19, 2008 @ 1:06 pm
[...] Google local maps will be pleased to hear that things have changed drastically and for the better. Mike Blumenthal recently reported this on his blog: This upgrade comes in response to 18 months of complaints in [...]
Pingback by » Google Local Maps Responding to Business Complaints Local Advertising Journal — March 19, 2008 @ 2:53 pm
Somewhere in Olean, NY, there is a very happy man today.
This is just super, Mike! The category headache may just be over.
Thanks for the up-to-the-minute reporting.
Miriam
Comment by MiriamEllis — March 19, 2008 @ 7:51 pm
Hi Miriam
I am in Allegany at the moment
Yes, it will be a relief to not see all those folks in the Maps group and all small business folks.
It raises interesting possibilites for exposing a business over a greater range of category searches and that will be helpful.
It makes it all the more imperative for business owners to claim their Maps record, rather than let a passerby define their categories for them.
Mike
Comment by Mike Blumenthal — March 19, 2008 @ 8:17 pm
If only they could do something to speed up the process of getting those listings published!
Comment by Shep — March 20, 2008 @ 1:08 pm
Hi Shep
It seems that in both the end user edit function and in some Local Business Center entries, the records are being published immediately. See this post: Google Maps Local Business Center now offering instant listings? to see my experiences with speed of listing. So at least in some cases they are speedy.
Why this is so limited or what triggers it is unknown.
Mike
Comment by Mike Blumenthal — March 20, 2008 @ 1:11 pm
[...] Center is allowing businesses to enter their own, custom categories. While this new functionality has been around for a few weeks now, it is an important one and addresses a major need that both Mike Blumenthal [...]
Pingback by Google Maps Now Allows Custom Categories For Businesses : Natural Search Blog — April 15, 2008 @ 11:39 am