Mike Blumenthal

Update 8:00 am: Steve points out below that this is not just a hack but a bug in how Google handles the URL from the Places Page. Thus even when a Places Listing points to the specific directory page for a business, the Google SERP can interpret and rank the URL based on the higher …

I was approached by two bed and breakfasts whose Places listing had merged. They have all of the standard problems of being in the same business and being located right next to each other. They have the additional problems of one of the businesses previously having the current phone number for the other business. It …

We are at the beginning of a new era of search that some folks are calling social search. Some businesses are seeing web traffic from the likes of Facebook and Twitter. The local businesses are under constant pressure to try new local marketing channels and often are not sure of how to proceed. But for …

A question that comes up all too frequently because Google has included a grade in the Places Dashboard rating the completeness of a listing, is: how do you make a Places listing 100% complete? It is soon followed by the question: will it affect my ranking or the results? Let me answer the second question …

There are many ways to judge an article’s popularity and worth (two distinct concepts for sure and they don’t always correlate). One is page views, another is retweets and the one that I consider most important, number of comments. Unfortunately, given time constraints and lack of the technology to quickly and easily track total tweets …

As we cede control of public functions to private entities we may gain some functionality or efficiency but we often loose control of other more critical, less commercial aspects of our lives. For example, as we cede control of money, traditionally a public function, to the likes of PayPal or Bank of America in the …