Comments on: Google Places: Problems in Tag land- Hell hath no fury like an SMB scorned! http://blumenthals.com/blog/2010/12/16/google-places-problems-in-tag-land-hell-hath-no-fury-like-an-smb-scorned/ Developing Knowledge about Local Search Fri, 24 May 2013 22:15:11 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.1 By: Jeffrey Magner http://blumenthals.com/blog/2010/12/16/google-places-problems-in-tag-land-hell-hath-no-fury-like-an-smb-scorned/comment-page-1/#comment-544447 Jeffrey Magner Wed, 26 Jan 2011 06:26:34 +0000 http://blumenthals.com/blog/?p=8587#comment-544447 Nice article Mike! Yes we’re still getting reports of Google calling on businesses and leaving messages. Business owners universally have NO TRUST in these phone calls. Business owners think it’s just a scam or someone posing as Google. They never believe it’s actually Google calling to “help them with their rankings”, as the messages indicate.

But, yes, it’s actually Google. But they don’t really want to help you with your ranking. They want to sell you Boost. This is the same business model as the other directories which offer you a free listing and then upsell you to a premium version for a fee.

Until now I’ve appreciated the “informative” performance updates Google sends out, but I’m expecting them to quickly turn into spammy upselling devices that business owners resent entirely.

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