About time! Last couple of months have been very frustrating.

On a slightly different note, Mike have you had a luck trying to get access to a Place account that you didn’t have access details for? i.e. when a business owner didn’t have it but their listing was verified by a third party i.e. another agency who didn’t pass on the details to the business owner?

Hey Mike,

It may just be a choice of language issue, but isn’t this just a “transition” of a Places page to the full new “Google+ Local” with social features page, rather than a “merge”, which to me indicates a merger of Google+ Local pages with already existing Google+ business pages?

I feel like we were on the same page on Twitter the other day after I asked about Benu’s clear misunderstanding of what that “Upgrade request” form as all about:

https://twitter.com/mblumenthal/status/212600506764374016

Just so we’re clear – is that still what you’re now talking about – an “upgrade”, rather than a merge between Google+ Local and existing Google+ business pages?

Thanks,
Randy

Wow, thanks for getting back to me so quickly Mike! So, just out of curiousity then, how were people able to make this “request”… And can anyone still?

A little off topic, but what would be the best thing to do (considering requested mergers are happening now) to get a “new” Local Listing? Initiate a Google Places Page? or start a Google+ Business Page (set to Local)? or wait?

Thanks Mike, I actually just got through searching your site and followed those links before I came back here to state that I was rushing initially and hadn’t read the fine print below the last field on that form and it is indeed a merge request form, but the headline and description Google uses don’t make it very clear:

Upgrade Request
Please fill out the form below to be considered for upgrading your listing early. Because we’re still in a testing phase, some things may not work as expected, and we appreciate your patience to help improve the product.

In order to be considered you must have your business verified in Google Places for Business and have created a local Google+ page. Once the listing for your business is upgraded, changes to the listing are subject to moderation under the applicable policies.

From the beginning, I was thinking this form was to request inclusion in the beta test of “upgraded” +local pages (social media capabilities activated), but I see now that it is without question a “merge” request, despite the fact that Google never uses that word.

Here’s the “fine print” that makes it clear what the form is actually used for:

Link to your local Google+ Page *
This is the page that you created via Google+ before we upgraded your Places listing to local Google+ pages. From the Google+ Page you created (with the “Posts” tab), copy and paste the URL that appears in your browser’s address bar.

As usual you were right and clearer than Google all along!

Mike, this request would be for a ‘new’ Local listing – one that hasn’t been discovered by Google yet. It’s a new business with come citation work done. What do you think? Google+ biz Page or Places Page request? (if that’s still possible).
Andy 🙂

Does anyone have any idea how Google will approach bulk accounts? I assume that, as of now, we must create and verify each Google+ Business page separately. However, once those pages are verified, is there a best way to manage multiple listings?

Currently, the users’ Pages dashboard shows each location with only the first 20 or so characters of the business name visible. When you have more than a few locations to manage, with the business names all being the same, I’m not sure how the best way to manage the listings would be. Any ideas?