Mike Blumenthal

Update: Google has confirmed that Messaging is officially rolling out. See the Messaging FAQ here. There have been numerous reports today of Google Messaging, the direct from Knowledge Panel SMS chat feature, rolling out more broadly. Whether this is an early rollout or a late test, it is hard to know as Google has not …

Many have asked whether Google would monetize Posts (or Websites, or Messaging or Insights or…). My thinking is that they will not monetize it directly but will use it as a reason for a business to come back to the Google My Business Dashboard where they can sell them Adwords. And not actually Adwords but …

Google, just off releasing a raft of new products and still testing others, has significantly updated the monthly Insights email that is being sent to GMB account owners. This email, one of many email notifications that the GMB is sending out, has signficantly more information than the previous email. Particularly this new email sends specific …

First reported last week on Twitter by Thibault Adda , I am now seeing a new front page GMB dashboard interface that not only allows a business to edit their listing but to get ready access to uploading photos, respond to reviews and be taken to the dashboard for more Insights. Google has long supported …

I was feeling lazy and running a little late so rather than grabbing BART in San Francisco I grabbed an Uber to the airport today. As I typically do, I asked the driver how Uber was treating him given the recent firing of his boss… He grumbled and said they sucked and it was getting …

On June 13th Google introduced Google Website, their single page web builder for (very) small businesses, worldwide. The product had been in testing since last year and appears to be targeted primarily at developing countries. How is it going two weeks on? How many sites have been built? I have been tracking the daily increase …

In a post on the Google My Business forum, Google allowed the sharing of a link to a form to for multi-location chains to express their interest in testing multi-location sharing of Posts. They note on the form: Posts for large multi-location businesses Posting across multiple locations is currently not supported in Google My Business. …

Google is formally announcing the world wide availability of Google Posts today. The product allows a business to micro-blog directly to their Knowledge Panel result, create Posts of up to 300 words in length and include a photo. The Post can be further defined as an event with a date range or a call to …

Summer has finally arrived to Western NY. And for me a burst of energy and new articles. Here are some of the articles I wrote (or in the case of LocalU or StreetFight co-wrote) around the web: Making Sense of Posts in Google’s SMB Product Portfolio – With David Mihmn at Streetfight. I have been following …

Consumers have long been fans of reading reviews but have been reticent to actually write reviews. It seems from my longitudinal surveys that that attitude is steadily changing. I was surprised to see the near linear increase in self reported review write AND to learn that those over 65 are just behind 25-35 year olds …