Comments on: Google Hiring Offer’s Field Sales Staff in 17 Major U.S. Markets

By: Loci 2011- David Mihm | Understanding Google Maps & Local Search

Loci 2011- David Mihm | Understanding Google Maps & Local Search — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 17:06:29 +0000

[...] Google’s investment in feet-on-the-street–initially as part of Offers, but going forward, for a whole suite of SMB digital marketing [...]

By: Mike

Mike — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 14:22:47 +0000

@Jim while you are not high on Google’s radar you should be counting your blessings that you are NOT the 51st state in the Union.

By: Jim Rudnick

Jim Rudnick — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 13:51:02 +0000

…sigh….Toronto is like bigger ‘n half of those US cities…but didn’t make the list….which means to me, that google.ca will be behind the curve again….

handy, in that we get to “go to school” on google.com items….but still makes us canuck SEO types “antsy” to get going….

Jim

PS nice catch here too, Mike!

By: Stu

Stu — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 15:16:48 +0000

@earl I love that adage “if all else fails, try sales.”

Right now, only very small agencies, on a fairly small scale, have been able to be the humans between Google algorithms and Small, 10 people or less, businesses.

One interesting thought I had, and I pose it as a question, will Google start actually helping local businesses rank on the map?

It seems to me that if Google did that, it wouldn’t be very long before everyone migrated over to get help from them, but then again, Google will see just how frustrating it can be helping people rank organically and turn everything right back over to Agencies. It would also put Google back in a position to just offer paid placement like back in the beginning of web time.

Thinking out loud here….

By: PureSheer

PureSheer — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 09:43:42 +0000

Evolution in front of our eyes!! Hope it’ll be a bit faster than the human evolution. As for now it seems to be on the same pace

Yam Regev

By: Mike

Mike — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 07:52:32 +0000

@Plamen

I would absolutely guess so on the Portals! And community managers. And additional local products.

@Earl
There were at least 4 job descriptions in each city… I grabbed the first of the links I could find so it is likely that if one is filled one or more of the others might be available. We don’t know when these were posted either… and in a city where there are already lots of Groupon sales people it might be easy to find an already trained sales staff.

@Puresheer

Certainly Google has been upping their service game across the board as they increasingly engage the local smb. First with an actual number to call with Tags/Boost and then with across the board phone support on Adwords and now this product. That doesn’t resolve the contradiction that they face with their “free” products like Places. There may be more “touch” points but it is not clear to me that they have yet figured out how to reconcile to the two sides of the house.

By: Plamen

Plamen — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 05:48:03 +0000

Maybe these jobs means that there are more "Google Local Portals" coming?

By: Chris Pantages

Chris Pantages — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 19:22:17 +0000

So San Jose/South Bay gets the shaft again. *sigh*

By: earlpearl

earlpearl — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 17:30:38 +0000

As of right now the Seattle, Dallas, and DC ads have been withdrawn. Can’t imagine they’ve already been filled….as would assume those jobs were for a lot of salespeople…

I see it as a logical and appropriate step for Google……and for those that have had problems in other fields I wonder if the old adage holds

“if all else fails try sales”

By: PureSheer

PureSheer — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 17:25:00 +0000

I agree Mike. Google is taking its Local penetration efforts to the next level of getting a higher friction with the field & SMBs (which are the essence of what is Local all about).
Seems like a new-old approach, after all- where there are (on line) profits, there will always be some Google intentions towards it.
Does the days of lack of Google’s customer care in the Local arena are coming to their end?