Mike Blumenthal

Google has introduced an enhanced business listing Map view in Google Maps that they have referred to as “1000 is the new 10” in the Lat-Long blog announcing the rollout. The new Map view provides an additional layer of dots that indicate that there are more relevant results than can be shown on one page. …

Google has recently informed me that the vulnerability that has led to the hijacking of claimed listings has been fixed and that business listings that have been claimed can no longer be compromised. The hijackings, common in the Locksmith business, were first reported very early last summer and fall. There have been numerous reports as …

In a new development in the mapspam world (as if we need new developments), it was reported in the Google Maps Help Group that the search: Auto Insurance Los Angeles, CA is now returning not just mapspam but porn mapspam. This listing does not appear to be a “community edit hijack” but rather a “legitimate” …

Heather Hopkins has posted updated Hitwise traffic for Google Maps and Mapquest: She noted: “A few weeks ago I thought I was onto something very hot. I was getting ready to announce that Google Maps had caught up to MapQuest in share of US Internet visits. I decided to wait a week to be sure …

Google Maps has no real public persona that equates to Matt Cutts on the organic side of the Google house. Cutts has taken on the role of guide, teacher, disciplinarian, webmaster liason, diplomat, conveyor of the company line and industry  spokesperson for Google. You may not always agree with him but he has earned our respect.   There …

One long standing complaint about the Local 10-Pack has been that on certain searches it returns multiple results for the same company. In July of 2008, Eric Enge interviewed Carter Maslan, Director of Product Management for Google Maps. In the interview he asked Carter whether it was appropriate to have single company dominate the listings …

If “citations” are the new link than it appears that georeferences are the new citation. Geotagging of photos, a common georeferenced data type, is gradually making its way into the mainstream. There has been a clear and steady integration of the technology into consumer products and a growing consumer awareness of the feature. Android and …

I received not one but three calls during the last week of January asking to confirm my listing for the Yellow Pages. Each time, the call attendant would assure me that I was NOT approving any charges as they talked over a computer response system. On the third call, I asked why they needed to …

Update 2/10/2009: The records returned to some state of normalcy. Since 7:00 am EST (and it is now 3:00 pm) the record is visible and working properly. Would love to hear from Maps Guide Jen where this puppy went. 🙂 Update 2/9/2009 1:30 EST: Whoaah….hold on there partner. Save the kudos for later. The record …

I ran a recent Mapquest/Google Maps comparison of visitation at Compete.com. It appears that Google Maps has passed Mapquest as the most visited mapping site: Google Maps has been gaining on Mapquest for the past two years. Hitwise data in October indicated that Maps was closing in on Mapquest. While MapQuest may have “come out …