Mike Blumenthal

Here is the official Google announcement of the new LBC Dashboard reproduced in its entirety:  New feature will provide businesses with new visibility into the ways their local listings are found on Google, enabling them to make smarter decisions about attracting customers Today Google is launching a new dashboard feature in the Google Local Business …

Update: Poll closes in 3 Hours. Please provide your input. Google recently revamped their Business Listing Guidelines and has provided much more detail about what is acceptable practice in listing a business on Google Maps. Despite their efforts to formalize what is spammy and what isn’t, the discussion in the comment section of the announcement …

Google is formally announcing their data rich Desktop for the LBC this morning. The new LBC view has been visible to a growing number of LBC users over the past week and should be visible to all US listings by Tuesday afternoon. I had some questions about the product and its focus which Carter Maslan, Director …

Google over the next 48 hours will be rolling our a new analytic feature for the Local Business Center to all U.S. LBC listings. For the first time users of the Local Business Center will have access to detailed information about how their listing is performing in the Universal Local Results on the main results …

If you haven’t seen this video, you should. Its a great summary of the vagaries of claiming a listing using Google Maps and the often times negative real world affects when Maps and reality collide:

Google updated the Maps Listing Guidelines earlier today. It is difficult to understand the differences without a direct comparison to the old guidelines. I have attempted to highlight the changes in italics: Original Guidelines New Guidlelines   Modified Guidelines   Represent your business exactly as it appears in real life. The name on Google Maps …

David Mihm has published his 2009 Local Search Ranking Factor interviews with contributions from 27 folks that work in local. The study, while anecdotal in nature, manages to capture the wisdom of the many in it’s summary of the factors affecting ranking in local search. All in all a stellar job with lots of tidbits …

Update 5/23: The Easy Stars are now visible in List view as well as Maps view There is a new interface feature in Google Maps that allows a user to quickly favor a business listing. A user must be logged in and viewing the listings in the Maps view mode where an outlined star will …