Mike Blumenthal

Late yesterday, Google announced that GoogleVoice can now be used with an SMB’s existing phone number. This announcement, while noting the loss of several features as a result of this capability, removes the final barrier for many to SMB’s to move GoogleVoice. This announcement also seems to insert Google forcefully and directly into the discussion …

Merchant Circle has made a fine art out of leveraging the very long tail of local search by returning results in the main Google SERPs on virtually every U.S. business’ trade name. They have carefully optimized their pages and link structure so as to be frequently highlighted in Google on “business name + locale” type …

Apparently we are not the only web design firm that gets indigestion making pages compatible with the many versions Internet Explorer. There are a number of reports (here, here, here, here) in the Google Maps forums detailing a display bug when viewing Google’s recently introduced Places pages in IE 8. The bug, first identified & …

GoDaddy has introduced an interesting geo-domain locator tool, GeoMapDomain, using Bing Maps for the backend. It provides an interesting way to find whether specific towns, villages or neighborhood domains and variations are available via a mapping interface. From the Bing Blog post: The GeoDomainMap takes your location input and finds nearby neighborhoods. Then, it takes …

This tale of woe was posted anonymously to several threads yesterday. We have no way of knowing, given the poster’s intentional anonymity, the veracity of the post. She left no email address or other identifiable information. For all we know, the story is totally fabricated. But if it were true, I am curious how you …

Barry at Search Engine Roundtable was the first to point out that Google has added a link to the Local Business Center that allows a business to locate the particular listing in the Maps index. It is a simple upgrade, that has long been requested, that hopefully will indicate to new listers and businesses unfamiliar …

I heard yesterday that the Data Rich Dashboard in the Local Business Center was rolled out in Australia. Today it seems that it has finally made it to Canada as well. Canada may very well be the last major industrialized nation to have gotten the dashboard although we have yet to hear from Denmark. Usually …

Update 10/22 about dawn: Sunrise will occur at its regularly scheduled time and place today. Google has located the lost village of Sunrise Fl. Word is that champagne is being opened for breakfast. Mimosas are being served all around. The say that it is always darkest hour just before the dawn. The seems particularly true …

Caution: The default volume on this video is set for 19 year old ears. Ah, the price of mapping the world.

Upstate NY is known for its roast beef on wick, salt rising bread and its colorful display of fall foliage. Some here think that the fall leaves are as good as or even surpass Vermont for beauty. The peak season for viewing this annual pageant is usually the few days before and after the long …