Mike Blumenthal

Today in the Google Maps for Business Group, Maps Guide Tom reconfirmed that Google had in fact fixed the missing record bug. He was writing in response to the numerous posts that records seemed to be still missing. Most records aren’t in fact missing rather they just don’t show in the Local 10-Pack, the users …

Update: Sometime around 8:00 EDT Saturday evening it appears that Google has removed these listings. It was reported below by Cavan Moon of eClickPerformance. Stephen Peron of ImNotaDoctor.com reports a case of Mapspam that he discovered while researching the phrase “San Diego internet consulting” (graphic courtesy of Imnotadoctor.com): He noted that the listing shows up …

In February, Google Map’s Guide Tom announced a bug where certain business records from the Local Business Center had gone missing in Maps. Records, once edited in the Local Business Center, randomly disappeared from both the Maps listing and the Google Local OneBox. The only fix was to delete the record and reenter it in …

In the past local searches (product + locale) would occasionally return an “inventory” onebox if Google felt that it was more relevant than a Local 10 Pack. An example is the search “Real Estate + Locale” which provides a Google Base search box to explore available inventory. Recently on the searches for “used cars + …

A number of posters (here , here and here) at the Google Maps for Business owners over the past several months have noted that their listing in the Local 10Pack had been missing the phone number. This bug was fairly widespread and had befallen three of my listings including my infamous medical listing. All instances …

Andrew Shotland has a recent report of SEO mapspam from a Vegas company called SEOChampion posting local listings for SEO services in his backyard. When he searched on Pleasanton SEO he found two spammy looking listings in the onebox. He drove to one address and discovered that the address doesn’t exist in Pleasanton. I did …

I will be on vacation until April 21st and will only sporadically have internet and blog access. Enjoy the world of local while I am gone.

I reported yesterday that new Maps terrain with contour view seemed to have supplanted the Hybrid view. The only thing missing was time for me to look around properly. Gregor Rothfuss of Google kindly pointed out how to find the not so missing hybrid view. Simply select the check box in the satellite view. Here …

This week I wrote an April 1st post about an upgrade to the Local Business Center that apparently a lot of people wanted to be real. I wanted it to finally work as well but unfortunately it doesn’t. Here are my previous posts about the Plus Box issues: •How to change your Business Address in …