Google is leaving no stone unturned in their effort to find new ways to 1)show ads and 2)redirect users back to Google properties to see those ads.

Brad Brewer of Brewer Digital Marketing originally shared this screen shot on G+ showing the addition of a link to Google’s hotel search from the Knowledge Panel on geographic city based searches.

This link of course returns an ad laden search result which takes you to the Google Hotel Local Stack, which if you click takes you to the Google Hotel Booking Page which if you click takes you to a Branded Search Knowledge Panel Booking page for a given hotel.

Talk about going down the Google rabbit hole… not a web link to be seen through most of this process except of course back to Google or to an ad. I think that the engineers at Google have in fact been reading Alice in Wonderland:

“Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?”
“That depends a good deal on where you want to get to.”
“I don’t much care where –”
“Then it doesn’t matter which way you go.”
― Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland
“As long as it’s back to Google”
– Larry Page

Google’s new motto: “What good is knowledge and all those facts if they can’t be monetized?”

Imagine some of the possibilities. Google could sell Disney tickets ads on the SeaWorld KP, they could sell t-shirt ads on the Bono one and heck maybe they could entice a Canadian pharmacy to sell drugs on the Knowledge Panel for US insurance companies. The possibilities are endless.

Start with a search for any big city (San Jose in this case):

Here is a tour of where you go once you click that link:

Continue reading Knowledge Panel – Down the Hotel Rabbit Hole with Google →

Update 3/5: Dan notes the response he received from support: “We attempted to retain the review itself and could not do so as a “snippet”, though it still stands as a wonderful review for your business. We removed the confusing snippet from your account.”

Update 2:27 PM (PST) 2/27: Googler Jade Wang just posted this on Dan’s original post: We are working to correct or remove this snippet. Thanks for bringing it to our attention.

Last  year Google added review snippets that represent general sentiment to the Knowledge Panel. These snippets are determined by algo and are intended to represent the public’s attitude about a business . Like all Google algos sooner or later they screw up and in inimitable fashion Google is unwilling or unable to fix it.

Dan Petrovic of DejanSEO in Australia reported a case on G+ yesterday where a positive review of his business was mangled into a negative snippet.

I, in my best Boy Scout behavior, suggested that he might want to contact the group that dealt with business snippets and see if they would take it down.

Here is Dan’s reply from Sylvia B. :

“Thanks for contacting Google Places for Business support regarding the descriptive terms associated with your business on the local Google+ page for your business. At this time, we do not remove terms for reasons such as being unclear or negative. These terms are a piece of our search results and we try to avoid editing or creating bias in what we show.”

If Google’s head were any further up their arse than this they could still pull it out 12″ and have another 12″ to go.

TechCrunch and SEL are reporting Google testing of  a live chat button appearing on business’s local Knowledge Panel.

This program is apparently part of a test with a limited number of businesses. It has been around at least since mid November when an invitee asked me about problems he was having with the test.

Here is the copy of the email that he had received from Google around mid November inviting him to participate in the test:

Use Hangouts with your Google+ page

Google Hangouts can make it easier for your customers to reach out to your business with a Hangouts chat message. When customers are looking for you on Google Maps or Search, they’ll find a button to chat with you.

This feature is currently limited to a small number of business that have been invited to test it. Opting-in to this feature will allow customers to chat with you by changing the “customize invites” setting for your business. If you don’t want to participate in the trial anymore, you can opt out in settings for your business in Hangouts.

Google has just announced a major update to Google My Business that finally rationalizes photos and their use across all of the places where your listing is shown.

From the post: Starting today, you can tell us which image you’d like to appear when customers search for your business on Google. Just log in to Google My Business on the web or in the Android or iOS apps, and visit the Photos section. While you’re there, you can also give your business a fresh look online by updating your profile, logo and cover photos.

Historically it was difficult from an interface point of view to add a cover photo and control which photos Google showed as it was split across three interfaces. With this upgrade all photos can be added from a simplified single user interface.

Best practices from the Google Help Files:

Your photos will look best on Google if they meet the following standards:

• Format: JPG, PNG, TIFF, BMP
• Size: Between 10KB and 5MB
• Minimum resolution: 250px on the longest side for profile & logo photos; 720px on the longest side for other business photos
• Aspect ratio: The longer dimension of the photo should be no more than four times the shorter dimension. Landscape photos look better than portrait photos on Google products. Panoramic photos may use different aspect ratios.
• Quality: The photo should be in focus, well-lit, have no photoshop alterations, and no excessive use of filters. The image should represent reality.

Here are screen shots of the upgrade:

Reviews are hard. Particularly at Yelp.

Most Americans have no desire to leave a review. When you combine that fact with fragmented market share and review site policies it becomes even more difficult.

Here are some numbers to put the difficulties with Yelp in perspective. Let’s start with emailing 100 of your customers to calculate how many folks are left to possibly leave reviews in the end:

¹ Based on my research 58.2% of all Americans have never left a review and another 19.6% almost never leave reviews. Only 6.6% of American adults report leaving 5 or more reviews a year. Convincing them to leave a review is unlikely.

² Having looked at over a quarter of a million emails at GetFiveStars.com*, 88% of all consumer feedback rated businesses a 9 or 10 on the Net Promoter Score scale of 0-10 and are considered promoters of those businesses.

³ Yelp is in a virtual tie for second place as a preferred spot to leave reviews. The research indicates 17.5% of consumers prefer Yelp although there is a margin of error of 3% so it could be as low as 14.% or has high as 20%. But remember that is an average and in many places it is less.

⁴ By Yelp’s own admission the number removed is 25%. In cases I have looked at it is actually much higher. And if you are in a market where Yelp is less popular it is more likely higher.

⁵ Remember that this .975 is the person NOT the review, you still need them to want to write a review and take the time to write one.

* I am a partner in GetFiveStars.com

It’s hard getting any review but it’s particularly hard getting Yelp reviews. They filter many, many more than make it through. I have seen filtering rates as hight as 85% of first time reviewers. Unless the reviewer has either lots of Yelp friends or lots of Yelp reviews, their reviews will be nuked.

Yelp, of course doesn’t want you asking for reviews. That is, to some extent, craziness on the part of Yelp and you are going to ask anyway. (As a note it’s not against their TOS, it’s just a “recommendation” that you not ask for reviews.)

So what do you do if you absolutely, unequivocally have to get a few reviews at Yelp? Laser sharp targeting of who you ask.

There is no sense asking 100 people if there isn’t a snow ball’s chance in hell of any of their reviews showing. Time waster for you and your client. And wasting client time is something you should not be doing.

Only ask your customers that you know have at least 10 or more reviews already on Yelp and/or lots of friends.

Yelp makes finding which of your “friends” have enough reviews or social strength easier than you think. If you have been using your personal Facebook account for interacting with your buisness clients or you have most of you clients in a major online mail service (Gmail, Yahoo, Outlook) here are the steps:

1- Login into you Yelp personal accounts.
2- Click on the Find Friends link on Yelp
3- Start with your Facebook friends and identify any that meet the minimum requirements for total reviews or friends. Reach out to them and ask for a Yelp review. I am sure that David Mihm and Bill Slawski would do me the kindness.

4. Once you have exhausted your Facebook friends, upload your Gmail (or other) mail contacts and do the same:

5. Assemble the list of those likely to get reviews approved and reach out to them via email or Facebook. And I can’t see any reason to friend them.

6. You probably SHOULDN’T do the following but the irony of using Yelp’s very own friending mechanism to ask for a review was too rich  not to mention. If you can’t reach them via email or Facebook then the following is a good backup:
Continue reading Getting Yelp Reviews When All Else Fails →

@mblumenthal @serenasaitto I don’t really get why it upsets people. No one is forcing them to pay extra & @Uber is not a monopoly. — Mike Okhravi (@mikeokhravi) December 18, 2014

I have been thinking about this question a lot since receiving the above tweet. Users do have a choice to either use or not use Uber. Why then is there such outrage?

And while I am not sure I have an answer, I have a lot of questions and in the end, I question Uber’s use of surge pricing and think it likely to come back and haunt them to the point that they will curtail it.

We all move through life modeling reality. Uber and its creators are no different in that regard. They are apparently using the current economic model (neoclassical) to implement their surge pricing forumulas.

“Price theory [under current economic theory] asserts that in a free market economy the market price reflects interaction between supply and demand: the price is set so as to equate the quantity being supplied and that being demanded. In turn these quantities are determined by the marginal utility of the asset to different buyers and to different sellers“.

Uber’s logic of surge pricing is imepecable. They have studied supply and demand and have found that by increasing pricing they in fact bring out more drivers, drive demand down and in effect achieve a supply/demand equilibrium. So good so far.

The problem? Neoclassical economics has several assumptions at its core: Continue reading Uber: Will Surge Pricing be the end of Uber or will Uber end It? →

Google announced today that as of February 16, the City Experts program that encouraged G+ users to become active reviewers will be upgraded and now called Local Guides.

The new Local Guides program implements a multi level approach with benefits accruing based on the total number of reviews written. There is even a code of conduct and a more formalized benefits structure.

The new benefits structure attempts to reward users that are outside the cities where City Experts has been active and to create some level of incentives around writing more reviews. In that regard it is similar to how Google handles contributors in the forum and the progression from entry level to top contributor.

Here is the email announcing the updated program and my standing in the new program:

Welcome to Local Guides

 Apply now

I had several “retail” interactions over the past few weeks that rubbed me the wrong way.

I went to rent a car from Enterprise, the only car rental in Olean, for about the 10th time this year. Other than knowing my name, they treated me like a new customer, signing all the forms, holding a huge deposit against my debit card (aye) or I needed to bring in my utility bill (?) and providing a slow front counter experience, despite very competent staff.

Shortly after I wanted to put a small, several thousand dollar over draft protection on a business account at the local credit union. These folks know the color of my underwear, have had many. many dealings with me and the account carried a very high monthly average. But for year end purposes I just wanted to be able to draw the account down for tax purposes. I had to go down to their office, bring my 2013 tax return, sign numerous pieces of paperwork and wait for 3 days to get an answer and then sign more paperwork.

In both cases there was personal attention and competent staff but I felt frustration. I realized after some reflection that what I missed in those transactions was the ease of a one click solution to get me through the most onerous parts of the transaction.

I also realized that the sharing economy companies, while not redefining economies or capitalism, do in fact redefine the customer experience expectations. They are not some new economic model but they are very efficient, albeit new, middlemen in a range of transactions that have leveraged technology to reduce staff and decrease buying friction.

One click shopping started with Amazon, moved on to Apple who demonstrated that you can value add a one click shopping experience with people and a store front.

But the sharing companies have introduced one click transactions to a broader range of activities, car rental (Zip), taxi and limo service (Uber, Lyft), accommodations (AirBnB) and I assume many consumers, like me, have come to expect a similarly easy transaction in all dealings whether local or online.

My expectation created a situation where I was no longer satisfied with the tedium of these recent transactions. In fact I actually resented the seeming redundancy of the interaction.

Obviously companies like Zip, AirBnB, Amazon etc have worked long and hard to provide a simple experience around those points of the transaction that have traditionally been the most painful whether it is a reservation or a product return.

While I don’t think that every business needs an app  I do think that every business, small and large, needs to examine every client facing transaction and explore making theses processes that are not core to their identify, faster, easier and less painful.

And its not to say that you need to remove people from the interaction. I think they can add value. But they need to be given the infrastructure and tools so as to be able to spend their time adding value to the interaction not making me sign paperwork.

I know that most small businesses confront a range of competitive pressures and difficulties in staying competitive. Adding one more “to do” to their list might seem almost impossible. Yet the ability to honor the time and trust that customers give them by respecting their expectations as to process efficiencies is one though that is critical to their long term survival.