tl;dr: Lots of small updates last week. And soon, very soon I won’t be pulling my hair out. 🙂

The transition to the new dashboard status: Judging by the fact that there were lots of complaints over the past two weeks in the forums about THE EMAIL and that my crufty, 2007 dashboard was finally converted I am assuming that Google has been making significant progress in the conversion to the new Places Dashboard.  And along comes some new issues and features and changing rules.

Bulk Uploads and Security: When the hotels were hijacked earlier this year, I noted that the bulk upload was a not very secure feed as opposed to true claiming of the new dashboard that locked down the listing. As Google moves to the new dashboard though, those feeds are becoming more secure as people can not add a listing uploaded in bulk to their new dashboard. “New dashboard users are blocked from verifying pages that are already verified by another user (either old dashboard, new dashboard, or G+). Being verified in a bulk account counts as being verified in the old dashboard. So, new dashboard users can’t claim pages that have already been verified in a bulk account”. OK that doesn’t mean that they are yet secure because a bulk listing can still be claimed in another approved bulk upload or an old Places Dashboard but it is step in the right direction. One day the transition will be over and we won’t be able to kick that dog any more. And then the real fun will begin as Franchise and Franchisors will actually have to talk to one another and possibly cooperate on their listings.

Orphan Plus Pages: In early February, Googler Jade noted If you’re creating a listing in the new Places for Business dashboard, now, you won’t have to wait to complete PIN verification before you can see the +page, for most businesses. Just follow the link from your dashboard to see the new page. You will be able to use Google+ social features on this unverified page, but please note — you still need to complete PIN verification before the page will start showing up in Google Maps and across other Google properties. Makes sense that a new claimant wouldn’t want to click on the G+ Link on the right and be confronted with another command to create an additional G+ Page.  Jade just updated that post and noted:

It also means that listings that were suspended, or were otherwise removed from the index but stayed in the old dashboard will also sort of show up once again. These pages are somewhat difficult to find, never showing in Maps but they will show up in G+. If you clients surface them, just go into the new dashboard and delete them

Google Maps for Android now showing owner responses: The mobile apps and mobile browsers have long had fewer features than the desktop vis a vis reviews. The new Google Maps for Android v 7.7 has recently been upgraded to show owner responses. OK that is a step in the right direction but the feature is still missing on Google Maps for iPhone and MORE IMPORTANTLY there is still no way to leave a review on mobile with the iPhone or Android from within the browser. This feature has been missing for nearly 2 years. At the time Google had indicated that they were aware of the bug and were working on a fix. Hows that for release early reiterate often? Baby steps are good but shouldn’t a user be able to leave a mobile review easily in 2014?