Understanding Google Places & Local Search – Developing Knowledge about Local Search

I have an old Nokia 3650 cell phone with a pre-columbian Java and an even older Symbian OS rev. Although it might just as well be called the Simian OS for all the good that my opposable thumbs do me. While it basically sucks I have learned how to take advantage of its many Web 0.5 features like WAP browsing.

I have experimented with most aspects of mobile internet, mobile local and mobile search on my phone. Most web implementations and search options for this generation of technology are either useless or so difficult to use that they might as well be. They do however tend to highlight interface issues with using mobile devices for browsing, emailing, reading etc. and when it does work it is awe inspiring. There is still something very Buck Rogerish about reading Bill Slawski’s recent post on Google Health & Privacy while heading down the highway (my wife IS driving of course).

Any task that requires significant input like internet searching, extensive email responses and Google SMS local search get used only when the “pain is worth the gain”. Other activities like Goog-411 that are not only painless but “fun” get used more regularly.

The one surprising thing that my antiquated cell phone does well is allow me to read. Virtually all of the uses that I have found for it include active reading with little or no input….I read emails (then call the client), read my kids text messages (then fume ) and most significantly keep abreast of my Google Reader list of “must read” local search news for the day.

Reading “Mobile web design is so different from the desktop web” (Martin Kleppmann of www.yes-no-cancel.co.uk) clarified my understanding of why some things work and some don’t on my ancient mobile browsing environment.

Google in their WAP mobile Google Reader implementation demonstrates Martin’s point:
For mobile users it is even more important than for normal web users that the designer has figured out exactly what the most frequently needed aspects of his site are, and made those aspects immediately and very easily accessible. This means that a mobile page can contain far fewer navigational elements (links) than a page intended for desktop viewing.

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MerchantCircle has been criticized in the past for its agressive and fear driven marketing to get small businesses to sign up to its services (see John Batelle, Matt McGee & Greg Sterling). They claim that 250,000 small businesses signed up for their service. According to Peter Krasilovsky at Kelsey Group:

the claim of 250,000 registered businesses, while impressive, should be sliced and diced for exactly what it is. The vast majority may have been duped into registering by an aggressive telemarketing campaign that strongly implied these businesses had a negative review, so they should go online and check it out. To see their “review,” they first had to register.

The obvious question is, how many of these violated businesses become loyal customers of MerchantCircle and are ready to be upsold into the SEM and promotion packages, etc.? No one will tell me. I imagine it is a very low number. Maybe it isn’t.

Well it appears that they are now attempting to motivate those that did signup previously to engage more with their service with similarly deceptive (although subtler) tactics.

I had signed up with MerchantCircle last year to see if they could help me manage my listing at multiple Local Search Engines including Yahoo and Google with a single central listing. I did everything they asked but they were unable to locate any of my records with Google (they have since stopped claiming to update Google), Yahoo or the Yellowpages so I stopped trying.

Today I received this email piece from them:

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Google, Yahoo Clash With AT&T, Verizon on U.S. Mobile Phone Ads (Bloomberg)

At stake is a market that may surge 10-fold to $16.2 billion globally by 2011, says EMarketer Inc., a research firm in New York. Google, based in Mountain View, California, sees as much as half of future sales coming from mobile phones. While the U.S. accounts for about 50 percent of global revenue from promotions viewed on computers, the figure drops to 27 percent on phones and may rise to 29 percent by 2011.

TomTom, Google team up on business information (Reuters) -

Dutch navigation systems company TomTom said on Wednesday it was teaming up with Internet search leader Google Inc so users can find and send business addresses to their portable devices.

TomTom, which makes navigation devices for cars and mapping software for handheld computers, said in a statement its users would be able to search for business addresses on Google Maps and transfer them to their TomTom device.

UPDATE: Nokia To Up Services Investment As It Fights Google, Apple  (CNN)

At its capital markets day on Tuesday, Nokia Corp. stressed the significance of its push into mobile services and indicated it intends to make further acquisitions in the field.

“We have to have a strategy against each of these people, and we do,” said Kallasvuo.

Yahoo: Mobile web to overtake PCs in next decade (Gary Price at ResourceShelf.com)

Local Search Guide – IYP & Search Engine Who’s Who
The Yellow Pages Association, along with sponsors eStara and Superpages.com and supporting partners comScore, SEMPO (Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization) and The Kelsey Group, offers the Local Search Guide, which profiles IYPs, Search Engines, Search Tools, Mobile Tools and selected Vertical Directories.

Google Maps now supports collaborative map-making (Google Lat Long Blog)

Google Introduces New “My Location” Feature for Mobile Devices (Greg Sterling – SearchEngineLand.com)

When I was in college, I had a job clipping articles from newspapers for a professor who was planning a book. It was back in the days when the Federal Government actually provided support for higher education and it afforded me the privelege of reading newspapers and being paid for it.

These days the job of clipping service flunky has been obsoleted and replaced with Google Alerts. It has been one of the indispensible tools in writing this blog. I receive a number of alerts each day with both broad and narrow search terms to keep abreast of writings far and wide in the field of Local Search.

Today I recieved this alert:

More Local Women Hitting Woods In Search Of Deer
WPXI.com – Pittsburgh,PA,USA

PITTSBURGH — While there are fewer hunters nationwide, one group of hunters is growing: women.

I took up golf this summer as my 12 year son wanted to learn the game and needed the ocassional partner. My woods game was nowhere near this accurate.

It is fascinating to me to see the emergence of local search & local mobile to be appearing so prominently in the mainstream press. In today’s online edition of the NY Times, the following three headlines from the technology section were featured on the front page:

A Web Tour Will Show Stores From the Inside Out
The Web site EveryScape.com lets a viewer take a realistic tour like the one of Cambridge, Mass., above. Soon, it will go inside to show store interiors, like the Harvard Coop, below.

A new three-dimensional promotional tool will allow Web surfers to venture down streets and inside some local businesses.
Prototype

Mobile Web: So Close Yet So Far

The wireless communications business smacks of a soap opera, with disaster lurking like your next dropped call.

Web Drives More Real-World Purchases

E-commerce purchases are expected to grow a healthy but unspectacular 17 to 20 percent this holiday season over last year’s. But the Web’s influence over what people buy could be growing even faster.

Mozilla moving to mobile – a great post from Schrep at Mozilla on their plans in the mobile space (prioritizing mobile platforn, adding mobile developement staff & a version of “Mobile firefox”). Also of interest was this tidbit about why now & available hardware:

Getting a no-compromise web experience on devices requires significant memory (>=64MB) as well as significant CPU horsepower. High end devices today are just approaching these requirements and will be commonplace soon For example, the iPhone has 128MB of DRAM and somewhere between a 400 to 600 MHz processor. It is somewhere between 10x-100x slower on scripting benchmarks than a new MacBook Pro and somewhere between 3-5x slower than an old T40 laptop on the same wifi network. But rapid improvements in mobile processors will close this gap within a few years. There are chips out there today that are faster than the one in the iPhone and integrate graphics, cpu, and i/o (wifi/3g/wimax) on one die. Intel has recently re-entered this market which will keep things interesting. Most exciting of all ARM has announced that by 2010 devices will be shipping with a processor 8x faster than what’s in the iPhone!

CNet has an interesting piece about a partnership between Multivers and Google that:

“will allow anyone to create a new online interactive 3D environment with just about any model from Google’s online repository of 3D models, its 3D Warehouse, as well as terrain from Google Earth.”

The project, referred to as Architectural Wonders project, “will allow virtual-world designers to incorporate not just models and terrain from Google Earth, but also much of the metadata that makes it so powerful: the personal notations and photographs that millions of users have added to it.

While the article is mostly about multiplayer role playing the implications for local are interesting.

Marty Weitraub has an amazing personal story about his battle with cancer and has started a meme to promote the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society Fund Raiser during SMX Mobile. Go for it Marty!

I am tagging Bill Slawski, Greg Sterling and Matt McGee.

Greg Sterling has a good piece on the The Debate Over User Reviews

Matt has a winner on Dear Small Business Owners: Put Down Your Ranking Reports and it applies equally well to local search

And Bill Slowski has an interesting patent review: Would You Rent Your Rooftop to Google To Show Ads Upon? (Too bizarre)

And an older (but important) post from Ahmed at TechSoapbox on Local data – categories, tags, structure, and taxonomy. I meant to reference earlier, but still well worth a read

Google is expanding Local info gathering in East Africa as well!

Blogging From SMX Local And Mobile – Mike the Internet guy is reporting on sessions as they happen

Michael Jones (Google) Keynote at SMX Local-Mobile Earth and Maps have 250 million users daily around the world.

Yahoo in 15-Nation Deal for Search on Cellphones (NY Times) Under the deal, Yahoo will feature its search engine on mobile portals run by Telefónica of Spain in 15 countries in Europe and Latin America.

Nokia buys Navteq (NY times) “This is not just about ‘the Internet goes mobile,’” Richard A. Simonson, Nokia’s chief financial officer, said in an interview yesterday. “We’re not just trying to replicate the Google or Microsoft experience online. The consumer won’t come unless we give them something that is rich.” That includes using the Global Positioning System to help users find restaurants, theaters and shops. “That’s where we are headed,” Mr. Simonson said.

Information on traffic, updated in real time, would also help consumers reach their destinations more easily.

Unlike phones that access maps online — like the Apple iPhone, which accesses Google Maps via the Internet — Nokia cellphones could be integrated with Navteq’s navigational software and technology. That could give Nokia an edge over competitors like Motorola and Samsung, analysts said.