Mike Blumenthal

I have received a copy of a post made to Google Photographers’ forum. This was also recently posted at Linda’s forum: Dear photographers and agencies, In the past few months, you may have seen some changes in the look of Google+ pages that have been associated with Google My Business (GMB) accounts. These changes, including how we …

Dave Oremland has pointed out recently that searching for mobile phone stores Vienna Virginia produced terrible results. Tim Capper, another TC in the Google My Business forums, noted that they are terrible world wide. So for now don’t go looking for a mobile phone store on Google unless of your you think it is your …

Google seems to have finally finished rolling out a Snak Pak update that layers a Hotel Finder like experience on all hospitality, food and entertainment searches. Colin Neilson wrote about some of the tests in early July as did Brad Brewer. Barry Schwartz noted the rollout in hotels several days ago. It appears to be …

In anticipation of the re-opening of MapMaker as announced last week, Google is now actively soliciting applicants to become regional editors. Here is an email that I just received asking me to apply to be a regional editor. Subject: Invitation to become a Map Maker Regional Lead Date: July 17, 2015 at 2:59:19 PM EDT …

Leaving a review for a business on Google via a mobile has long been a pain. However starting in early May on Android 5 and gradually working its way across Google’s & Apple’s mobile browsers, users can once again leave a review for a business using almost any mobile browser. This includes Safari and Chrome …

Google has finally acknowledged publicly that they were now adding Google Local reviews to Adword ads that use Location Extensions. These were seen in the wild starting several weeks ago. These reviews can be seen instead of seller ratings from 3rd party sites. Previously it was only possible to get Google Local review stars if you …

Joy Hawkins reports that Adword customers that are using Location extension that are synced with GMB are now showing their review stars in the Ads. Previously this feature was only available via Adwords Express and to get the stars you needed to work with a 3rd party review site like TrustPilot. I first saw these …

Re/code has just reported that Uber has hired Brian McClendon, the former co-head of Google Maps. McClendon has a storied history in the mapping world having created Keyhole and Google Earth and having marshalled many of the technical developments at Google Maps over the past 10 years. According to Wikipedia he holds 12 Map patents including …

Re/Code reported yesterday that Facebook is expanding its Place Tips program and  making free beacons available to retailers. The program, first tested in Brooklyn 6 months ago, installs a beacon into the local business and pushes current posts and photos for the business to your phone while you are in that location. If you are standing in line at a …