Mike Blumenthal

I reported earlier in the day that Google seemed to be rolling out a new Tag like attribute for the free hotel listings in the Local Pack. During the past week, as noted by Brian Barwig and Michael Wallace, Google has also been adding paid ads to the top of the Local Finder. Together they …

Remember back in 2010 when Google rolled out “Tags” to allow for paid enhancement of your local listing? Well, at least in the Hotel world, its deja vue all over again as these paid insertions into the free Local Pack seem to have made a comeback. The Local Pack which has been the last bastion of “free” placement …

QR Codes never took off in the US. It was an offline to online play that always required too many apps,  took too many steps, was too obtuse and ended up not solving any problems. I once used them to learn the history of the streets a small town in Hungary – the only time I …

Google appears to be  rolling out local gas prices to the mobile Local 3 Pack. The pricing is also visible on the Local Finder and the location Knowledge panel. Spotted last night by Dr Pete on the desktop and  Adam Humphreys of Making8  and reported this AM by Barry Schwartz it is visible to me on …

Update: 5:00 PM Eastern They are once again online The Google My Business guidelines, the bible for what is and isn’t acceptable behavior when listing a business, seem to have come up missing from the Google My Business Help Files. (H/T to Helmut Geissler, Google Maps and Google My Business Top Contributor). The page URL …

Senator Blumenthal (no relationship) interviewed Professor Tim Wu, who last year came out against Google’s Local Universal results as opposed to an alternative result, and Prefessor Meamed as to whether consumers have been harmed by Google’s behaviors, particularly in local. To paraphrase Prof Wu starting at 01:59 in the video: There was not strong evidence …

Join Mary Bowling and myself at Local U for our weekly Deep Dive as we look at some of the issues around spamming Google Maps from the agency and business point view.

Last week when I was discussing the new Google approach to immersive mobile search I noted that if Google didn’t get you on the click they got you on the clock. This definitely falls under “the click” category. Google, in what is clearly a test*, is offering movie purchases up with a bold, call to …

It appears (h/t Conrad O’Connell via David Mihm) ) that Google now allows reviews to be left with just a Google account and is no longer requiring the use of a Google Plus. This appears to be true across all browsers on both mobile and desktop. Read the whole store at GetFiveStars.

Google My Business updated their help file page: “Improve your local ranking on Google” Page.  And surprisingly, after a slow start, actually added some real ranking information (this does not appear to be a April 1 Joke): Prominence is also based on information that Google has about a business from across the web (like links, articles, and …