Yelp reviews, after showing briefly in the new “Reviews from the web” area of the Knowledge Panel, have once again disappeared from site. It would seem that TripAdvisor aggregate reviews are also conspicuously absent.

Google must work on the premise of ask for forgiveness not permission. Unfortunately it does not appear that Jeremy Stoppleman (of delete your account fame) is not in a forgiving mood.

Here is a Knowledge Panel screen capture of Barbara Oliver Jewelry, my pet client in Buffalo, from Thursday showing Yelp reviews:

And the same screen shot after Yelp deleted their Google account yesterday:

I checked around the world via Twitter and Priya Chandra, my favorite Aussie and fellow Top Contributor to Google My Business,  noted that as of yesterday evening (EDT) Yelp was still showing. But as of this AM its gone.

In the restaurant world ,at least on my favorite dive bar in Olean, 3rd Base, Yelp was quickly replaced by 4Square and Zomato:

It would appear from casual observation that the order of the reviews showing in the Knowledge Panel mirrors the organic ranking of that review site. And that to be shown the review site, needs to be on the first page of the organic results. It appears that some sites like Zomato and perhaps Foursquare have also achieved some ranking boost as neither was anecdotally visible prior to this update.

I would also note that TripAdvisor is also conspicuously missing from panel despite ranking highly for many brand searches and displaying rich snippets in the search results. It does not appear accidental.

Go figure. But this recent update will keep tin hat theorists, Google world domination theorists AND Jeremy occupied for a while.

 

h/t to Matt McGee for assembling this on Storify

LocalU Advanced takes a deep dive into the nuts and bolts of the bleeding edge of local search. Our upcoming LocalU Advanced is taking place the night of October 20th and the day October 21st. To give you a sense of the topics we will be covering we will be interviewing some of the speakers that will be there. David Deering, one of the foremost practitioners of Schema markup will be heading two sessions; Advanced Schema Markup for Local Businesses and a deep dive problem solving session Schema Q&A. If you want to learn the latest in Schema you owe it to yourself and your team to come.

In this first interview of our speaker series with myself, Mike Ramsey and David Deering of TouchPoint Digital, we discuss a number of recent developments, new Schema standards, updated Google rules and some in depth Schema ideas as to how it benefits the local business.

Cross posted at LocalU.org

Google has confirmed that they are expanding the test of a “write directly to the search” results product first seen in January for presidential candidates and in the March time frame seen for small businesses. According to Google the test is expanding from “10’s of small businesses to thousands”.

We should be seeing more and more examples in local branded search results over the next 30 days.The test is being run in the US, Brazil and India. The product has not yet been seen being tested with larger brands but is also being tested with live events like soccer matches, certain vertical solutions and other entity types likes schools.

Essentially the product, which has no formal name (I refer to it as Google Posts or Google Podium or maybe the product that “shall not be named”), allows an small business (or other entity) to easily create “cards” that present directly in search results much like an AMP page. In the March SMB tests these local “cards” showed on broad search terms but it appears that in the new test these “cards” will typically show on a brand search in close association with the Knowledge Panel.

Think of it as a live, real time stream of local business content for search. The local card is essentially a super lightweight, fast loading web page that resides directly on Google and may become one of the simplest ways for a business to create a web presence for user discovery.

The product apparently uses a dedicated app/environment that is a super simplified way for a small business to post images, text, links and videos in real time. With these cards, Google is opening up a more dynamic, real time content arena for local businesses. The cards, as in the previous test, can be easily shared by searchers via email or social channels. Essentially Google is attempting to make search results more of a destination and possibly viral.

Given that this current test is focused around showing these local cards on branded results only, I could envision a companion monetization by “boosting” a card to broader local search terms or charging for possible calls to action.

Given that the test is being expanded in Brazil and India as well implies that Google might be seeing this feature as a web alternative for small businesses in developing countries with less bandwidth and computing resources.

When viewed in conjunction with AMP, Places Actions (the ability to schedule a visit via the Knowledge Panel), Google Local Trip Planner and other long standing features like click to call, you can see a long term product arc that is making Local search results the final destination for users rather than a stopping point on a purchase journey. 

Update (via Joy Hawkins): here is a search My Special Day that returns the results.

 

 

LocalU Advanced is my favorite conference of the year. And you probably get tired of me saying this but this will be one of the best ones yet.

Continue reading LocalU Advanced Agenda & Super Early Bird Pricing →

Google seems to be either testing or rotating in more aggressive of the Knowledge Panel on mobile to garner reviews and additional location details. I am awaiting Jeremy Stoppleman’s forthcoming hue and cry.

Last week over the cours of the day I saw these three Knowledge Panel presentations for the same location. (These have probably been available for a while but I just noticed it.)

Google is in the process of updating the Google My Business and My Business List (bulk) interfaces to create greater consistency of the user experience. Several weeks ago they launch a new navigation experience and today they are updating the Info Panel. My sense is that there is more to come. (h/t to Joy Hawkins and the Localsearchforum)

Simultaneously with the improvement to the interface Google is rolling out on an account by account basis, a completely new Insights platform. Initially the new analytics platform will only provide improved visuals but according to Google the complete guts to the system were rewritten and provide a basis for future expansion of capabilities.

from google: