Mike Blumenthal

The ability to see and change existing categories via Community edit has recently been removed by Google. David Rodecker of RelevantAds pointed out this subtle but interesting change in the Google Maps Community Edit feature that was introduced in March of 2008. A community editor can still add a category but the ability to know …

Last week in the Maps Forums and again today as a posting in a comment in Google Maps vs Locksmith Spammers: Spammers winning? Locksmiths have noted that Google is apparently building system wide impediments to spamming. Boruch Fishman, an SEO in the Locksmith industry noted: Recently Google has been slamming locksmith spam so hard it appears …

Maps Google has been somewhat more forward facing of late. They rolled out the data rich Dashboard accompanied by a strong PR push in the technical, business and mainstream media. They have been dribbling out tidbits as to how Maps function (see the diagram to right) and are being somewhat more forthright on the forums …

The Local Business Center status of being Flagged Waiting for content check is one that generates the most posts in the Google Help Forums. Google has never clearly defined all of the situations that precipitate the message. The technique of line by line and word by word removal of the content and then resaving your …

Google No Longer Accepts Emergency Data Reports – Miriam Ellis Solas Web Design Miriam responds to Google’s apparent lack of support for emergency listing accuracy in Maps. The Guide to Canadian Citations for Local Search – David Mihm, Mihmorandum An excellent resource for anyone living north of THE border that is managing a local listing. …

I post in the Google Maps Help forums and regularly receive emails from other forum readers. I received this one yesterday asking for advice.  Hi Mike, I wanted to thank you for your contributions to the various, un-centralized (Mapspam) threads on Google about this topic. In a way, it seems like you are the only …

Miriam Ellis has anecdotally documented the frustration that business users feel with Google once they arrive at the Maps Help Forum. The incredulity that smb’s have at Google’s apparent lack of customer support is summed up in these few quotes (amongst the 65 or so that Miriam has documented): – Google really likes to keep …

Recently there was a posting in Google’s forum where a large hospital facility was asking for help with claiming and verifying their records in Google Maps. They had a phone system that wouldn’t allow phone verification and the post cards either didn’t arrive or were lost in their internal mail system. Google’s Employee Joel responded …

Google Voice is a tool that every small business start up, working professional and high school student are likely to lust after. It is phone and voice management app that Google aquired from Grand Central that provides a single unified number and interface for all of your phone numbers, conference calls & voice messaging. It …

Google Lat Long Blog announced the availability of hi res images from Tehran, Iran for use in Google Earth: Many of you have been letting us know through Tweets, emails, blog posts, message boards, and even an online petition that you’re very interested in seeing recent satellite imagery of Tehran. Well, we’ve heard your requests …