Mike Blumenthal

I have noted in the past that Google very much controls their own destiny when it come to traffic to their Maps product. In early January, Heather Hopkins took a year long look at the growth of Google Maps traffic at the expense of Mapquest. Google has often made changes that has improved their traffic …

This thread appeared in the Google Maps Troubleshooting Group in which Maps Guide Jen confirmed that there is a 5 edit limit to the number of Maps edits that can be made at one time: TOPIC: Editing limits ================================================== == 1 of 3 == Date: Wed, Mar 19 2008 2:04 pm From: keithdtyler@gmail.com I’m going …

Steve Espinosa has noted on his blog that Maps is now supporting the option of adding a video to your business record in the Local Business Center. The feature is now live. The process of adding a video is similar to adding a photo. The business is allowed to display up to 5 videos in …

Yahoo Local Full of Affiliate Spam – eClick Performance Blog A great article on the large amount of affiliate spam in the hotel industry on Yahoo Local as a result of allowing end user edits.  Affiliates essentially highjack unclaimed records and interject their url on a pass through basis to the actual hotel website, thus …

With the recent rollout of Add a Place to Map , allowing everyone to add a listing to maps with its more flexible categorization structure, Google has also upgraded the categorization system in the Local Business Center. This upgrade comes in response to 18 months of complaints in the Google Maps for Business Group. The …

I just received the following email from Maps Guide Brian: From: “Maps Guide Brian” Date: Tue, March 18, 2008 6:10 pm To: “Google Maps Help Group – Current Issues” Add, edit and mark locations for removal. Check out videos and instructions in the “Editing places” section of the “Search” tab in the Google Maps User …

In the posting at the Google Lat Long Blog google has noted the following about the new Add/Edit Place to Map feature : •The feature is only available in U.S., Australia, and New Zealand •It can be used to edit a business as well as add new content. In this context it can be used …

The new Google Maps feature to allow every user to create a new business listing is now live. The program was hinted at broadly by Carter Maslan, Maps Product Manager last month in an interview and confirmed today by Google. The new Map feature was seen as early as Sunday. Here is a comprehensive slideshow …