Mike Blumenthal

With the release of V2 of the Google My Business API, Google simultaneously released categories for each of the 135 countries currently supported by the GMB. I noted it at the time but it was lost in the article but I wanted to be sure that folks so these categories and downloaded them if they needed …

Our spring Local U Advanced in Williamsburg is one of my favorite conferences… its laser focused on Local search, the group is intimate and collegial, the content is state of the art…. And this year, David Mihm claims that the IPAs will be to die for (you won’t be able to tell by me). All …

Today, NY attorney General  Schneiderman announced a  settlement with four companies in regards posting fraudulent content in the form of reviews and pay for play testimonials. Penalties ranged from $20,000 to $50,000 and included both NY and Californian companies. Schneiderman has led the states in enforcement in this area having previously settled similar review abuse cases in the …

My wife is redoing our living room and recently ordered replacement curtains from JC Penny.  As you know I also helped create GetFiveStars (although I am not helping with the living room) but anything in regards to reviews gets my attention. So I was surprised last week when JC Penny asked me to write a …

Join Mary bowling, Aaron Weiche and myself at LocalU.org as we discuss the past year and the major directions of Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon in Local. What are the trends and how should you respond?     The Deep Dive Video Series is a weekly discussion of an important aspect of Local. They are …

Early today at Linda’s forum and the Local U forum it was reported that Google had rolled out a Google Trusted Verifier Program that allowed folks in the field to verify a business while on site, using an Android app. It now appears that the help files were released prematurely and they were all removed …

Google is looking for folks to test upcoming SMB products: The Google My Business and Ads teams are working on several new product features in 2016 to improve overall merchant/advertiser engagement and value. Before releasing these products/features to the general public, we want to beta test them with a group of trusted business testers who …

Google has confirmed that they are now allowing a business to directly edit their business information via the Knowledge Panel and the Local Finder on the desktop and mobile WITHOUT visiting the Google My Business Dashboard. Prya Chandra reported earlier today on G+ a new Knowledge Panel interface that allows direct editing of a local listing …

Imagine a world where multi location business no longer have to continually mess with the Google My Business bulk dashboard and could have a direct feed of their critical location data to the Knowledge Panel via their website with schema markup.  Apparently that world is right around the corner. Rohan Ayyar of E2M pointed out on …