Local Links of Interest

Cellphones as Credit Cards? Americans Must Wait Leslie Berlin, NY Times It is almost certain that mobile-phone payments will eventually come to the United States. After all, the technology promises something for everyone involved: Credit-card companies would have a new way to attract and keep customers and would save money by no longer sending cards …

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Mapspam Reporting Looses Visibility In Map Support Groups

Update from Google’s Maps Guide Jen: “We’re working on a solution. In the meantime, we’ll try to be extra vigilant about the spam that is reported”. Google’s recent upgrade to their support forums has a number of pluses and a few minuses. The tighter integration with their Help System and the ease of locating the forums …

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Google Maps features launched in the last 6 months of 2008

Remembering what happened yesterday is difficult let alone what happened last month. Google Maps changes so quickly and the odds of any one person seeing and knowing every change is quite small. The net result is a frequent banter amongst the Localites (David Mihm, Matt McGee, Steve Espinosa, Martijn Beijk, Will Scott, Miriam Ellis etc) …

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Local AdWord ads now more integrated with Maps

On Tuesday, Google announced that Adwords displayed in Maps would not open to an info window that “will feature new interactive links that are designed to connect users to your business quickly”. Currently the new adwords info bubbles are only showing in the Map View. Note that the ads at the bottom of the Map …

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Google Groups for Maps Moved to new Forum Platform

As noted several weeks ago, Google Groups for Maps was being moved to new Forum Platform. That switch has now taken place. From the Lat Long Blog: Our Google Map Help Group now has a new home! You may have already heard of (or tried out) the new Google Help Forums. Today, our Google Maps Help Group will be moving …

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Locai 2008- Miriam Ellis – Most Important Search Pieces in 2008

Miriam Ellis, along with her husband, operates  Solas Web Design, a web design & local seo company focusing on the small business marketplace. She writes frequently on small business issues at her blog, SEO Igloo. When she isn’t writing on her blog or commenting here, you will also find her guest blogging, moderating  and writing at: …

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Loci 2008 – Rand Fishkin – The year in Local 2008

Rand Fishkin , of SEOMoz, needs no introduction from me. Here are his favorites: *** Sure – here goes: http://www.davidmihm.com/local-search-ranking-factors.shtml from David Mihm http://www.seomoz.org/blog/the-world-series-spidering-problem from Will Critchlow http://paulgraham.com/cities.html by Paul Graham Hope that helps! Rand

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