Local Weekend Update

Several items of interest. Dates & Scores No Longer Showing on Google Reviews. Chris Campbell on Twitter and Jack Thornburg on G+ pinged me that date and scores on individual reviews on the business G+ Page had stopped showing. It had been reported on April 4th in the forums. Google has said that they are looking …

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New Google Places for Business: Articles From Around the Web

Late yesterday, Google started rolling out the updated Places for Business dashboard to new claimants and they have simultaneously redirected some dashboard accounts to the new interface. Here are some additional articles from around the web about the change: More details about the improved look and feel of Google Places for Business – Joel Headley (must …

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Categories in the new Places for Business Dashboard

One of the big changes in the rollout of the new Places for Business Dashboard is a change with categories. Categories have long been a key factor in Google’s determination of relevance of a listing. Google has added some additional categories, changed how categories are handled as well how many categories a business is allowed …

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Visual Guide to the new Places for Business Dashboard

Here is a comprehensive visual overview, with comments, of the new Places for Business Dashboard. I was provided with a test account by Google. The new interface takes “widget” approach to all functionality. Editing data is a widget as are G+, Adwords Express and Offers. That implies that many more “widgets” will make their way …

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Google’s Local Primary Data Suppliers Around the World

Google’s Local Search sits at the center of an ecosystem of local web sites and data providers and they use this ecosystem to assemble their business listing data. This is true in the US and the basic structure and process is replicated on a local in every other country in the world using different local …

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