Mike Blumenthal

According to Barry at Seroundtable, more searchers are now seeing the new 3 column Google Jazz Interface. This interface, which Google hopes to push out sometime this year will have a significant impact on local search if for no other reason than because of it showing a 5 pack instead of the current 7 pack …

Here are links to 10 posts I wrote this year about things that I found in patents and white papers from the search engines. I’ve included links to the patent filings and whitepapers as well, and included the date that each post was published in parentheses after the links to those posts. I broke them …

I just received this email from Google: Coming Soon: Click-to-Call in Ads on Mobile Devices with Google AdWords Dear AdWords Advertiser, We’re pleased to announce that beginning in January, your location-specific business phone number will display alongside your destination url in ads that appear on high-end mobile devices. Users will be able to click-to-call your …

With the recent brouhaha over the missing 7 packs for SEO and Web Designers due to “lack of local intent” on the part of searchers, you would think that Google would have the common sense not to rub salt in the wounds. Well, you would have thought wrong. Whether by intent or accident, Google is …

Yesterday, Google’s Joel H has definitively confirmed that, at least in the whole of the US, Canada & the UK, they are no longer showing the 7 Pack on queries for Web Designers, Graphic Design, SEOs or Advertising Agents when paired with the City & ST. According to Google, the searches lack sufficient local intent …

Google has recently added a “Report A Problem” Link for reporting business Listing spam & errors from within Maps. The link is available via the business listing info bubble where once you select “Edit” you are presented with a “Report A Problem” link that takes you to a short form. According to Google Guide Cecelia …

2009 has been an exciting year of growth for local and for my blog. To all of those many folks world wide that have regularly contributed to the conversation and my learning I say THANK YOU! Here are the 10 Most Read Stories of 2009 (in order of total pageviews): 1. Google replaces TeleAtlas data in …

Greg Sterling posted a Hitwise list of the Top 10 Sites for 2009. It showed ebay.com at the number 10 spot. According to Compete, Google Maps is approaching Ebay and if it can sustain its growth, might even pass them in the coming year even without the Yelp volume.

Barry Schwartz has pointed out that last week, Google Maps added a chart showing which Google Maps services were available in which country. Maps is a global product that is offered in 200 some odd countries and there are a range of features available depending on licensing and data availability. Thus the matrix is incredibly …

The year has been an interesting one. The recent conversation of a possible acquisition of Yelp by Google motivated me to create this chart comparing traffic for the larger sites in the Local arena. The year started with Craig’s List and Mapquest holding a small lead over Google Maps. Citysearch held a solid fourth and …