Mike Blumenthal

I have in the past criticized Merchant Circle’s marketing tactics. However, my recent interview with Chuck Bruce of Central Valley Vacuum and Sewing Center, allowed me to see them from the merchant’s point of view and, for a moment anyways, allowed me to see them in a different light. I figured that if they could make Chuck …

When Google announced the “doubling” of Streetview coverage in the LatLong Blog a week ago, I didn’t think much about it. I presumed that it meant that they were now covering the top 100 metro markets instead of the top 50. When I saw the StreetView of Devil’s Tower, I expanded my expectation to include …

In my never ending quest to ferret out interesting tidbits about Local Search, I receive a number of Google alerts. Their news algo is pretty good and turns up a number of things that I would otherwise miss and my life would be the poorer for. Occasionally it will turn up news stories that are …

Update 12/11/08: Cathy has pointed out, and I believe correctly, that this survey is NOT from Google.  If you were the “Lord Ruler of Google” what would you do to improve the local search results? In the Google Maps for Business Owners, Someone Google (NOT…this is my error …) has invited users for feedback on their Local …

Forget for a moment that Google has managed to list this business three times. For me the question is: How did Google Maps manage to place these three listings of the same business, with ostensibly the same address at three different map locations?

Updated 12/10/2008 7:00 AM:Last night, Lior of the My Maps Team posted below that the problem has been fixed. Maps Guide Adam noted it as well yesterday mid afternoon. There was a sigh of relief in the groups that was audible even in western New York. Today in the Google Maps Troubleshooting Group there were …

Google Maps Doubles Streetview Coverage – Google Lat Long Blog we’re doubling the amount of coverage in the United States. This will bring Street View to some new cities, like Memphis, Birmingham, and Charleston (SC), and also to a few states for the first time, like Maine, West Virginia, North Dakota, and South Dakota.  Google …

Update 12/10/08 10:00 am: Google has apparently removed 7098 of these bogus listings. But for reasons beyond my comprehension there are still a few left in the index. Update 12/10/08 7:00 pm: Google has apparently removed all of these listings. PromoterLocal.com appears to be a local search firm like many others. They offer a Google Maps …

Google has decided to, well… put Google back into Christmas. Maps Guide Jade posted in the Google Maps support groups announcing Google Map’s “collection of Google Maps Holiday Solutions to help get you through the holidays with ease”. After having just returned from a visit with my in-laws I got a particular chuckle from the idea …

Adwords Appearing for Competitors in Embedded Maps – Martijn Beijk, martijnbeijk.com Martijn points out that embedded Google Maps on your website could very well now include Adword ads to your competitor’s website. I presume that this is part of Google effort to push more ads out of late but their appearance on embedded Maps seems …