Understanding Google My Business & Local Search
Entries Written By Mike Blumenthal
In Confusion there is Opportunity
We are in the embryonic days of local search and it is confusing. Confusing to the small business person as Anita Campbell pointed out in her blog and confounding to experts as Bill Slawski pointed out in his piece on the idosyncracies of Google Map’s Local Search data. There are many who wonder if Google’s …
Google Maps and Library Listings -a replicated Bill Slawski experiment
I wanted to replicate Bill Slawski’s test of how well Goole Local handled libraries and see if our rural libraries faired any better in having the correct URL associated with their local listing. I was also curious if other information could be teased out of the results. I searched on four rural libraries with & …
Best Practices for Local Success
Local Search optimization should be an integral part of every web site marketing plan. The goal is to encourage customers to visit or contact your business and Local Search plays an ever increasing role in this. The ultimate goal in Local Search optimization is a showing your business on the Google Main Search results page …
Will Google Maps (Local) data become more accurate & useful over time?
Bill Slawski of SEO by The Sea and I have been having a discussion about whether the technologies and strategies that he outlined in his Google Local Patent Summary were enough to allow Google Maps to be accurate. Bill sent me a long list of reasons why Google Local could not be accurate. Up until …
A summary of Bill Slawski’s Google Local Search Patent summary
In early September, Bill Slawski wrote a great review/summary/analysis of Google’s Local Search Patent Application. I reread it over the weekend* and felt the surge of epiphany flow over me as I recognized the theoretical underpinnings of Google Local search results. As Bill noted, Google Local is a “structure generation engine” that collects information from …
Windows Live Does Virtual Dallas
Google Earth Meets Windows Live “Virtual Earth” Search Engine Roundtable – Extremely impressive release by Microsoft with Virtual Earth. It is basically a Google Earth product with “dramatic 3-D mapping” in … Windows Live Local Gets “Virtual Earth” 3-D Cities Search Engine Watch (Greg Sterling)- Tomorrow Microsoft will bring dramatic 3-D mapping to the browser …
When will GeoCoding impact Local Search?
In yesterday’s issue (11/2/06) of the NY Times they published an interesting article called: Basics: Pictures, With Map and Pushpin Included on the nascient field of photo geocoding. I had been oblivious to this technology before but after reading this article I realized that it will have a huge impact on Local Search going forward. …
What is the click to call feature on Google Maps?
From Google Maps Help: We’re testing a new feature, click to call, on Google Maps. Click to call gives you a fast and easy way to speak directly with businesses found on our maps. The following are a few frequently asked questions about this feature:Â How does it work? When you click the “call” link …
Google has acquired JotSpot the collaborative Wiki
From the jotpsot.com press release: We’re writing to let you know that Google has acquired JotSpot. We believe this is great news for our users. More importantly, we want to reassure you that you’ll continue to have uninterrupted access to your account. Both Google and JotSpot are committed to supporting our customers, and we understand …
877-520-FIND (Goog 411)
Greg Sterling found an ad today for 877-520-FIND that took him to http://www.520find.com/. He looked for but couldn’t find any ownership information. Other than a reference to LanLogic on the terms of use page. While the facts of ownership may be cloudy, there are several things that are clear: 1)The service works very well. I …
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