Mike Blumenthal

Google announced today that they are entering the domain registration space with a limited test of the product.  Here is the full announcement from the Google + Your Business page: It’s 2014 and it seems obvious, but across laptops, tablets and mobile devices, a website is one of the first places people go to find information …

The recent rollout of Google My Business provides an interesting view port into the future of Plus. It is the first public major rollout in Local since Larry Page took the helm and since the introduction of Google Plus three years ago.  We can see in this product the widespread use of Plus features but …

Kerry Fager pointed out a recent post by Alex Cordes where he noted that the Local Carousel was showing for searches on professionals when you clicked through to the “People Also Searched For” results at the bottom of any given Knowledge Panel. It appears that this expanded display of the carousel is happening on almost …

Google has started sending out very customized emails in an effort to attract businesses to their new My Business Page. It will be interesting to see how much and how lavishly Google promotes My Business. It really is the first time in a number of years that they have a place to send an SMB …

Today, Google is rolling out Google My Business – a significant small business upgrade to Google Places and Plus. After multiple years of struggle in upgrading Places and merging local into Plus, Google is finally nearing the point where they have a solid platform addressing the needs of small businesses. My Business is currently rolling out world …

Brian Alaway of Brian Alaway Consulting has spotted what appears to be a new YouTube Video Knowledge Graph direct answer type inserted at the top of the serps. Google has been rapidly adding these direct answer knowledge graph results to top of the search results over the past few months. They have added Menus,  Geometry Answers, …

Google has announced today in the forums the ability to upgrade Branded G+ Pages to Local G+ Pages.  Read all of the details at the LocalU Blog: Google Now Allows Brand Pages to Become Google+ Local Pages. Additional details: Google For Business Forum post Help Center Files

This is old news to some but interesting to me. Last week, while I was in Hungary, Dr. Pete reported on Twitter that Google’s new paid ads that appear in car knowledge graph panels has gone live. It is a dramatic presentation on the desktop. And even more so on mobile. Will Google soon be …