{"id":1904,"date":"2008-12-30T06:00:49","date_gmt":"2008-12-30T10:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blumenthals.com\/blog\/?p=1904"},"modified":"2008-12-31T09:40:04","modified_gmt":"2008-12-31T13:40:04","slug":"loci-2008-matt-cutts-important-articles-of-2008","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blumenthals.com\/blog\/2008\/12\/30\/loci-2008-matt-cutts-important-articles-of-2008\/","title":{"rendered":"Loci 2008: Matt Cutt’s Important Local Articles of 2008"},"content":{"rendered":"

Matt Cutts<\/a> from Google is well….Matt Cutts. He doesn’t need much introduction (nor link juice) from me \ud83d\ude42 .
\n****
\nHere you go:<\/p>\n

Just to reiterate, this is my personal opinion. I would say that in my mind, one main story of Google Maps\/Local this year is how it opened up more this year. Overall, that’s a good thing and Google’s service has gotten better as a result:
\n—http:\/\/searchengineland.com\/google-maps-opens-up-editing-to-everyone-13590<\/a>
\n—http:\/\/blumenthals.com\/blog\/2008\/03\/18\/google-maps-everyone-can-create-a-business-listing<\/a>\/<\/p>\n

But it’s not just editing listing and claiming listings. Google also opened up with Google Map Maker, which has let people around the world contribute a phenomenal amount of data that helps everyone:
\n—http:\/\/google-latlong.blogspot.com\/2008\/06\/making-your-mark-on-world.html<\/a><\/p>\n

The articles that have been the most important to me personally are the ones that point out areas that still need work, although other people might not pay as much attention to them, e.g.
\n—http:\/\/searchengineland.com\/searching-for-small-businesses-coming-up-frustrated-15112<\/a>
\n—http:\/\/searchengineland.com\/google-local-business-hijacking-microsoft-acquires-yahoo-becomes-escort-service-15313<\/a><\/p>\n

But then again, I tend to dwell on the negative reports or articles that give feedback on ways to improve. I think an average person is more likely to care about traffic conditions:
\n—http:\/\/googlesystem.blogspot.com\/2008\/04\/google-maps-predicts-traffic-conditions.html<\/a>
\nor that Google Maps provided great voter guide information:
\n—http:\/\/blumenthals.com\/blog\/2008\/09\/20\/google-maps-to-provide-complete-voter-information-for-upcoming-election\/<\/a><\/p>\n

I sometimes dwell on the negative feedback that we get, but the Maps\/Local products have really improved a lot this year, from much more Street View coverage
\n—http:\/\/google-latlong.blogspot.com\/2008\/12\/double-coverage-double-fun.html<\/a>
\nto Terrain Maps:
\n—http:\/\/google-latlong.blogspot.com\/2008\/04\/last-summer-somewhere-in-adirondacks.html<\/a>
\nto a new UI:
\n—http:\/\/googlesystem.blogspot.com\/2008\/11\/google-maps-has-new-interface.html
\n<\/a><\/p>\n

Matt<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Matt Cutts from Google is well….Matt Cutts. He doesn’t need much introduction (nor link juice) from me \ud83d\ude42 . **** Here you go: Just to reiterate, this is my personal opinion. I would say that in my mind, one main story of Google Maps\/Local this year is how it opened up more this year. Overall, …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":262,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,1,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1904","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-google-maps-google-local","category-uncategorized","category-loci-significant-articles-local-search"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t