Update 5/23: The Easy Stars are now visible in List view as well as Maps view
There is a new interface feature in Google Maps that allows a user to quickly favor a business listing. A user must be logged in and viewing the listings in the Maps view mode where an outlined star will be visible immediately after the business name.
Upon selecting the star it turns yellow and a the starred listing appears in the user’s MyMaps view (thanks to Stever of AxeMedia for the clue). The yellow star also appears on the listing in the main Map viewing area.
The feature allows a quick and easy way to create a MyMap list of favorite businesses or places in Maps for whatever purpose. Or as Miriam Ellis points out it could also be used to create a list of worsts.
At this point the MyMap is only visible to the logged in user that added the stars but it would be nice if this MyMap’s starred list could used to quickly create sharable public & embedable MyMap.
It is not clear whether the stars impact ranking.
I was noticing that. Does it artificially place your favorite business at the top of Local results, or just serve as a marker? I am testing it now and will let you know my findings.
Comment by panzermike (130 comments) — May 23, 2009 @ 12:41 pm
Adding a favorite does not appear to artificially change rankings for the user who did the favoriting (personalized results). I tested it on a business that ranks near top in the 10 pack, but is page 2 inside Maps itself. No change in it’s placement in any results for me.
Comment by Stever (135 comments) — May 23, 2009 @ 2:10 pm
ty
Comment by panzermike (130 comments) — May 23, 2009 @ 2:51 pm
Thanks for the nice mention, Mike.
Perhaps this will simply act as bookmarks do in other platforms…slowing increasing a profile’s perceived value because multiple people have favorited it.
By the way, Mike, thanks to you, I now have Beefeaters restaurant in MyMaps.
Comment by MiriamEllis (362 comments) — May 24, 2009 @ 2:40 am
@Miriam
You? Favored Beefeaters? Hmm…you can unfavor it you know. I am not sure that you would the word getting around that you like roast beef on kummelwick.
Yes, I think think it might just increase a sites aggregate location prominence over time.
Comment by Mike (1029 comments) — May 24, 2009 @ 7:17 am
[...] L’ultima novità di GoogleMaps riguarda l’introduzione di una sorta di sistema di bookmarks per i marker dei risultati delle proprie ricerche. Siamo ancora ben lontani da poterlo definire un tool completo di gestione dei Preferiti, ma [...]
Pingback by Bookmarks su GoogleMaps attraverso le stelle preferite « GoogleMaps: esperimenti e riflessioni di Local Search — May 25, 2009 @ 5:30 am
[...] seeing them in my own account yet, I’m sure they’ll spread gradually much as the recent Easy Stars and instant updates have recently. Mike Blumenthal also has a very full screenshot [...]
Pingback by Mihmorandum | Requests for New & Improved Google Maps Features | Google — June 1, 2009 @ 7:56 pm
I haven’t noticed the yellow stars yet. Thanks for the headsup.
Comment by Lyndon (3 comments) — July 27, 2009 @ 1:37 pm