Local Links of Interest

Piper Jaffray: 8% of teens own an iPhone, 22% will – 16th Semi-Annual Piper Jaffray ‘Taking Stock With Teens’ Study In addition, 8 percent of students indicate they own an Apple iPhone (up from 3 percent in fall 2007), while 22 percent of students expect to buy an iPhone in the next 6 months (up from …

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Google Maps: One (data) Ring to Rule Them All

Yesterday I asked whether Google Map’s upward trend continue? Can Mapquest maintain its market share? Or like the IYP space does Google just have too much presence in search to not win this race also? From where I sit, these Map & IYP Market Share comparisons only look at a narrow sliver of Local results …

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Maps IYP Market Share

For my presentation at SMXEast, Heather Hopkins of Hitwise was kind enough to provide me with this custom view comparing the 3 leaders in the Maps/IYP space. With Mapquest’s recent upgrade this space is largely converging into a consolidated Maps/Directions/Business Listing product. As I have pointed out before, it is my belief that the IYP’s …

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SMXEast Presentation: A patent review of Maps Ranking Factors

I have been reading Google’s Location Prominence Patent of late in search of a better understanding of the web related factors that affect Local ranking in Maps. This presentation augments the one made at SMXLocal in July. If time allows I will do a series on the underlying patent and its implications. Here is my …

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Google Maps Printed Driving Instructions Upgrade

In April of this year, Google started including Street View with the driving instructions. It was an upgrade that offered a “serious” use for the Street View images. Since late August, Maps has been undergoing the “blue line” upgrade. It showed up first in the Maps view. And about two weeks ago showed up in …

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Hitwise Maps Market Share

Heather Hopkins has recently completed an analysis of traffic to the major map sites, Mapquest, Google, Yahoo.com and Live. Google Maps is continuing to gain market share primarily at the expense of Mapsquest and to a lesser extent Yahoo. Mapquest’s recent strong upgrade seems to have slowed that trend but it remains to be seen …

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Android vs. iPhone: a false comparison

Last week saw the introduction of the first Android phone, the G1 handset for T-Mobile. It’s a cool piece of hardware and software that should appeal to many. But is it really an iPhone competitor? And is that why we should care? No and no, but care we should. Here are sampling of the headlines …

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Google formally announces Google Voter Info Map

Google has formally announced Maps.Google.com/Vote that I covered in mid September. In addition to offering voting information and polling places (coming October 15) via Maps they are making the maplet available as a widget for your website via a their Gadget creator: As I mentioned in my earlier post, this type of mash up of …

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Google Blogsearch good for hyperlocal blogging?

Google, in upgrading Google Blog search, has created an intriguing potential competitor to Techmeme. The upgraded search provides broad blog coverage, picks up stories quickly and has the potential to project blog content more widely. ReadWriteWeb noted: The new Google Blogsearch has the potential to reach tens of millions of people and drive insane amounts …

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Google Maps Hijacking: Listings still in Maps

Earlier today when I had read that Podesta Baldocchi Florist’s listing had returned to normal in the Local 10 Pack, I had assumed that Google had cleaned up the mess and removed the offending listings from Maps. Not so fast pardner! It seems two weeks isn’t quite long enough to purge these fellows. A number …

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