Understanding Google My Business & Local Search
Some Tidbits from Google’s Rollouts Yesterday
The weird stuff from yesterday has come into clearer focus. New Maps, Back to the Future on Review Rating Stars (although red this time), New G+ (argh)….but here are some tidbits that might make all of the once and future changes a tad more understandable:
- The new Google Maps is currently available by invite only. You must go here and request an invitation as it is still considered a preview.
- However there is some leakage in the preview. To see the new Maps list view of local search results add the search parameter “&tbm=plcs” to a local search result. Even though the URL parameter indicates that this is the Places page (whose link was removed last week from the main search page), it currently is only visible to the public via the new Google Maps to those that have access to the preview.
- Whether this view will ever be visible via the main search results is unknown. Certainly retaining the old url parameter makes it confusing. But it appears so far that local isn’t so much being rebranded as being absorbed into Maps and Plus. Still no real clear name for it. I guess that entitles us to make it up. Nominations are open.
- Google is abandoning the Zagat rating system. I guess they are planning on selling it to Yahoo. Regardless, in another visible leak of the coming upgrade, you can see the new rating system on your
Place PageG+ Local Pageuh your (local and perhaps social) G+ Page by adding this search parameter “&rfmt=s” to the G+ Page URL. - In the current iteration of the G+ Page for Local with the new review notation, it appears that there is a bug that prevents owner comments from displaying. (Hat tip to Dave…welcome back btw)
- If you are like me, and find the new,
improvedG+ layout to be way too distracting and hard to follow you can change it most of the way back by using this tip from David Fuchs:
Go to your home page
– Click “More” on top
– Scroll all the way to the bottom
– two icons choose the left one.
To fix the profile page
-Settings
Accessibility
[x] Change the presentation of some pages to work better with screen readers and other accessibility tools.
© Copyright 2024 - MIKE BLUMENTHAL, ALL RIGHT RESERVED.
Comments
12 Comments
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Eric Marshall (14 comments)
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Google+/Local/Places/Maps name nomination: Google Gaps
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Mike Blumenthal (3913 comments)
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@Eric
The logo could be an earth with Alfred E Newman’s face on it.
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Justin Sous (17 comments)
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Mike – any word if there is any advertising on this page, or if they’ve decided to remove it? (Doubt it)
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Andy Kuiper (480 comments)
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“Google+ Recruitment Engine for Local Business, Organizations… & Everyone Else (including maps and info)”
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Dan (36 comments)
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While I like @Andy Kuiper’s “Google+ Recruitment Engine for Local Business, Organizations… & Everyone Else (including maps and info)” for the name, I am partial to something even more opaque. A symbol perhaps? Maybe a merge of the Google +/Maps/Search logos all overlayed on eachother so it is both impossible to understand or replicate.
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Jared Carrizales (1 comments)
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This constant changing is ridiculous. It’s one thing for us to keep up with the complex changes, but how is a business owner supposed to have the slightest clue as to what’s going on?
I second Eric’s nomination – Google Gaps. Nice.
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Eric Marshall (14 comments)
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Ha! I like it.
Other variations of the Gap product could be:
Gaps+
Gaps Local
Gaps+ Local
GapWords Express
GapWords Express+
etc.
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Kerry (48 comments)
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New nomination: how about using a word that has been used for years in Local SEO to describe the set of information for a given business? Google Cluster.
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Alex (34 comments)
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Google Live
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Chris Brewer (4 comments)
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I knew that 30 point scale would be confusing to users! I love your insight Mike.
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Dan Austin (109 comments)
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@Kerry: How about Google Clusterf***?
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Clare Sandall (2 comments)
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Great piece Mike as always and I agree entirely with Jared though
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