Understanding Google My Business & Local Search
Entries Published On November, 2012
Google Adds Mirror Dice to G+ Local Pages
Google has added a new feature (props to Matt Gregory for pointing this out) to the Google+ Local pages that allows a user to add custom fields to any given business listing. You can add things like the name of the person you deal with at the business, their birthday and unique contact information. The …
Google Local Search Results Where None Have Gone Before
At a recent Local University, Googler Joel Headley indicated that Google desired to increasingly show local results whenever pinned results were appropriate and Google was able to show them. One area where this has become apparent is in Real Estate which are once again showing a broad range of pinned blended and pack results. In …
The Customer (Or Was it Groupon?) Made Me Do It – Owner Review Responses at Google+ Local
Some things should just be left unsaid. This Gainsville auto detailing business obviously had troubles keeping their Groupon customers happy. It is unclear exactly who was to blame the business or the customers. It doesn’t really matter as the customers left a number of bad reviews. This business couldn’t leave well enough alone and decided to …
NetMarketShare: Mobile Market Share Passes 10% for First Time
Netmarkshare is reporting that aggregate mobile usage has passed 10% across all websites for the first time. The bulk of that usage is attributable to iOS which comes in at ~60%. Obviously not all of that usage is truly mobile as the iPad has become an early evening and late night alternative to desktop browsing. …
The Future of SMB POS Defined by GoPago’s Free POS System
Sometimes the lights go on and the realization strikes that a new metaphor has taken hold and will change the market going forward. That realization struck when I recently read about GoPago’s Free POS system for SMBs. Greg Sterling first wrote about the product in August but it wasn’t until I saw a second article …
Is Siri Sick (of Local Search)?
Siri has been making lots of stupid mistakes lately in local search. Mistakes that it’s younger sibling, Apple Maps, is not making. These are simple mistakes that were not there when Siri was the only game in town. Is she just looking for some more attention? Is she thinking of heading in some new direction …
GPSBites Interview
I did an interview in GPSBites where I was asked to muse on my background, the current state of mapping, the fate of PNDs & mapping companies and the near future of the intersection of mapping and commerce. Here is a snippet of a much longer interview: 2. You recently published your own survey which was …
Google+ Local Reviews Now Showing Descriptive and Not Numerical Scores
Update: Google not only changed the output of the review content but they changed the interface at the time of review creation to have users select from the descriptive phrases as well. See photo below. Last week at Getlisted Local U Advanced in NYC, Googler Joel Headley noted that “descriptive terms (poor, good, very good …
What Do Consumers Think of the iPhone Map App?
Much has been reported in the media about the iPhone Map App that Apple rolled out with the release of iOS6. The early reporting was anecdotal, apocalyptic or often just plain wrong but very little of it addressed the question of what consumers thought of Apple’s new Map app. What do they think? It would …
“We do not support this location” Update
Earlier this summer, Google removed a large number of residentially located service area businesses (SAB) from the index for not hiding their address. While Google was trying to clean up the index, a number of these SABs were removed in error. It turned out that Google was unable to restore many of those erroneously removed …
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