Understanding Google My Business & Local Search
Entries Written By Mike Blumenthal
Google Responds to Microsoft Hijacking
Google responded via the comment section to the Microsoft Hijacking: **** (cross-posted to Danny Sullivan at http://searchengineland.com/google-local-business-hijacking-microsoft-acquires-yahoo-becomes-escort-service-15313.php) Hi Mike, We appreciate your continued efforts to help us identify spam on Google Maps. The wiki nature of Google Maps expands upon Google’s steadfast commitment to open community. That said, we also work very hard internally to …
The complexities of YP listing management in the Google Age
I have often noted in the past how managing a business listing has gone from expensive to free but from simple to complicated. It used to be a simple matter of paying the Yellowpage salesman to correct this or change that. But now the path to getting it corrected is much, much more complicated. I …
Hey I resemble that remark
Coverage of my shenanigans vìs-a-vìs Microsoft’s listing in Google Maps has been wider than just the search industry. Regardless, a number of writers have ascribed intentions and feelings to me that seem to drift toward the dramatic and away from reality. From the Silicon Alley Insider: “An angry small business advocate has his revenge”. and …
Google Voter Information Tool Goes Mobile
Google’s Voter Information Tool has gone mobile. From the official Google Blog: With the U.S. elections less than a week away, voting drives are ramping up. Political parties and non-partisan groups alike are sending out volunteers to encourage citizens to vote on November 4. To make sure these volunteers have the same voter info tools available to …
Local Business Center Backend being updated
From google Maps at 5:00 pm EST: The Google Local Business Center is unavailable for the next hour We appreciate your patience as we perform some routine system maintenance. More specifically, we’re updating ‘the backend’ (to employ that catchy, catchall moniker coined and lent to us by engineering folks who work on all of the …
Microsoft’s listing in Google Maps Hijacked (oops by me)
Last week I spoke with Marc from podestabaldocchi.com, one of the florists in San Francisco that was hijacked in mid September in Google Maps. Two things struck me in the conversation. The first was that he estimated that his business was off 30% for the weeks of the hijacking. That is a significant number that …
How long does it take to fix an map data error?
Miriam at Solasdesign has been doing a series of blog posts about the process of updating erroneous underlying map data from TeleAtlas and Navteq. Miriam’s client had a business on a street in Hayward, Wisconsin that was not shown in Google Maps, MapQuest, Yahoo or MSN. Currently Navteq provides map data to MapQuest, Yahoo and MSN while …
Going West
Going West:(thanks to Martijn)
Google Map’s spam fighting efforts- if graded?
My son just got his progress report in school and I am proud to say that he got very good grades. It wasn’t always that way, and in fact last year he spent most of the time either on restrictions or with extra chores. He has grown up a lot over the past 6 months …
ShopSavvy: ROBO in Real time for Android
Svetlana Gladkova of profy.com had an interesting piece on ShopSavvy, one of the first and most popular Android Apps downloadable from the Android Market. She noted that despite some roll out difficulties that by 2 p.m. ShopSavvy had 3096 installs and 3033 users actively scanning barcodes (97% usage rate)and usage was growing 20% an hour …
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