Mike Blumenthal

It appears that Google updating the mobile Local Finder to the “restaurant style” carousel slider type display. Earlier in the day Phil Barnhart pointed out that he was seeing this new display on dog grooming. I started seeing it initially on Chrome on iPhone as well across  many categories and by the end of the …

TLDR; Google has reduced the visibility of posts in both mobile and desktop search while simultaneously increasing their reach by now showing them (at least some of the time) in Google Maps. At the end of September, Google upended the visibility of Posts on both the desktop and mobile. On the desktop posts have been …

At Google I/O a preview of Google’s Assistant Duplex, Google’s AI based human sounding  digital assistant that can auto create reservations, set off a maelstrom of both interest and criticism. The Announcement from the Google My Business Forum Hey everyone! At our annual conference Google I/O, we showed a preview of a new feature in …

I was sitting on my office, doing “research” and did the same local search (Custom Jewelry Design Williamsville) on my iPhone in three different Google mobile environments; Safari, Chrome and the Google App. All within seconds of each other. Next time your boss comes and asks you what’s up with the local search results, throw …

Last December we started seeing thumbnails in the mobile local organic results. What was obviously a test then became more visible over the summer and starting last month, became widely visible. It is a mobile only feature that made me and several clients curious. How was it triggered? Why & when does it show? Why …

Last week Google, in a disappointing action,  moved Google Posts from front in center of the Knowledge Panel to the bottom of the KP in organic and to the middle of the search results in mobile. Obviously, this is likely to cause a reduction on conversions as the Posts are less visible and lower on …

TLDR: ~7% of businesses world wide that have verified their business listing are using Google Posts and roughly 26% of verified business in the US were doing so. On a percentage basis the use of posts was highest, around 30%, in Spain, Italy and Japan. The developed world has significantly more updake of this feature …

In June of this past year, as Google My Business Website reached the age of one, I noted that businesses had created 2 million of these single page mobile ready websites. The rate of uptake, particularly in Asia and Brazil, has accelerated and there are now almost 12 million of these sites world wide. 10 …

When I helped start GatherUp (previously GetFiveStars), I did so with the idea that local businesses, small and big, deserved world class tools that helped them navigate and benefit from the world of reviews. And I also wanted to be sure that the agencies that helped them could leverage the more advanced features of these …

Google has been expanding the branded local search results. Most recently (last November timeframe) they added an About tab that included corporate information, often a link to wikipedia or the main corporate about us page and social links Today I started seeing the inclusion of a Posts Tab in these results. Interestingly this is NOT …