{"id":3339,"date":"2009-05-20T13:34:43","date_gmt":"2009-05-20T17:34:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blumenthals.com\/blog\/?p=3339"},"modified":"2009-05-20T13:34:43","modified_gmt":"2009-05-20T17:34:43","slug":"google-maps-lbc-changes-upgrades","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blumenthals.com\/blog\/2009\/05\/20\/google-maps-lbc-changes-upgrades\/","title":{"rendered":"Google Maps LBC Changes &#038; Upgrades"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>On Monday the <a href=\"http:\/\/blumenthals.com\/blog\/2009\/05\/15\/google-maps-important-announcement-for-local-business-center-users\/\">Local Business Center was taken down<\/a> for maintanence and fixes. We know that there has been a decrease in reports of <a href=\"http:\/\/blumenthals.com\/blog\/2009\/05\/18\/google-maps-local-business-center-online-merging-problem-improved\/\">merged business listings<\/a> (although there are reports of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.google.com\/support\/forum\/p\/maps\/thread?tid=27af34173bcb1a1e&#038;hl=en\">reviews still merging<\/a> between businesses). It appears that there have been several changes in the phone verification system as well:<\/p>\n<p>-Now the PIN is provided via the verification call and not via the web (thanks to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.elocallisting.com\">Joseph Magnotti<\/a>). This changes the flow of the approval process and makes it somewhat more difficult for 3rd parties to involve themselves in the authorization process.<\/p>\n<p>-Apparently the problems of the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.google.com\/support\/forum\/p\/maps\/thread?fid=5119b99f3eb7429d00046a5a9c1298e5&#038;hl=en\">phone verification system<\/a> not responding well to 0&#8217;s and 1&#8217;s may also have been resolved. This has been an <a href=\"http:\/\/blumenthals.com\/blog\/2009\/03\/24\/google-maps-telephone-validation-not-working-properly-in-canada\/\">on-going problem <\/a>that particularly affected Canadian users.<\/p>\n<p>Have you found other changes and updates to the Local Business Center? Let me know!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On Monday the Local Business Center was taken down for maintanence and fixes. We know that there has been a decrease in reports of merged business listings (although there are reports of reviews still merging between businesses). It appears that there have been several changes in the phone verification system as well: -Now the PIN &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":262,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3339","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-google-maps-google-local"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t<!-- All in One SEO 4.9.9 - aioseo.com -->\n\t<meta name=\"description\" content=\"On Monday the Local Business Center was taken down for maintanence and fixes. We know that there has been a decrease in reports of merged business listings (although there are reports of reviews still merging between businesses). It appears that there have been several changes in the phone verification system as well: -Now the PIN\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"max-image-preview:large\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Mike Blumenthal\"\/>\n\t<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blumenthals.com\/blog\/2009\/05\/20\/google-maps-lbc-changes-upgrades\/\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"generator\" content=\"All in One SEO (AIOSEO) 4.9.9\" \/>\n\t\t<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n\t\t<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Mike Blumenthal | Developing Knowledge about Local Search\" \/>\n\t\t<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n\t\t<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Google Maps LBC Changes &amp; Upgrades\" \/>\n\t\t<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"On Monday the Local Business Center was taken down for maintanence and fixes. We know that there has been a decrease in reports of merged business listings (although there are reports of reviews still merging between businesses). It appears that there have been several changes in the phone verification system as well: -Now the PIN\" \/>\n\t\t<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/blumenthals.com\/blog\/2009\/05\/20\/google-maps-lbc-changes-upgrades\/\" \/>\n\t\t<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2009-05-20T17:34:43+00:00\" \/>\n\t\t<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2009-05-20T17:34:43+00:00\" \/>\n\t\t<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary\" \/>\n\t\t<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Google Maps LBC Changes &amp; Upgrades\" \/>\n\t\t<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"On Monday the Local Business Center was taken down for maintanence and fixes. We know that there has been a decrease in reports of merged business listings (although there are reports of reviews still merging between businesses). It appears that there have been several changes in the phone verification system as well: -Now the PIN\" \/>\n\t\t<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"aioseo-schema\">\n\t\t\t{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blumenthals.com\\\/blog\\\/2009\\\/05\\\/20\\\/google-maps-lbc-changes-upgrades\\\/#article\",\"name\":\"Google Maps LBC Changes & Upgrades\",\"headline\":\"Google Maps LBC Changes &#038; Upgrades\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blumenthals.com\\\/blog\\\/author\\\/mike-blumenthal\\\/#author\"},\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blumenthals.com\\\/blog\\\/#organization\"},\"datePublished\":\"2009-05-20T13:34:43-04:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2009-05-20T13:34:43-04:00\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"commentCount\":9,\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blumenthals.com\\\/blog\\\/2009\\\/05\\\/20\\\/google-maps-lbc-changes-upgrades\\\/#webpage\"},\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blumenthals.com\\\/blog\\\/2009\\\/05\\\/20\\\/google-maps-lbc-changes-upgrades\\\/#webpage\"},\"articleSection\":\"Google Places (Maps &amp; Local)\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blumenthals.com\\\/blog\\\/2009\\\/05\\\/20\\\/google-maps-lbc-changes-upgrades\\\/#breadcrumblist\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blumenthals.com\\\/blog#listItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blumenthals.com\\\/blog\",\"nextItem\":{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blumenthals.com\\\/blog\\\/category\\\/google-maps-google-local\\\/#listItem\",\"name\":\"Google Places (Maps &amp; Local)\"}},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blumenthals.com\\\/blog\\\/category\\\/google-maps-google-local\\\/#listItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Google Places (Maps &amp; Local)\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blumenthals.com\\\/blog\\\/category\\\/google-maps-google-local\\\/\",\"nextItem\":{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blumenthals.com\\\/blog\\\/2009\\\/05\\\/20\\\/google-maps-lbc-changes-upgrades\\\/#listItem\",\"name\":\"Google Maps LBC Changes &#038; Upgrades\"},\"previousItem\":{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blumenthals.com\\\/blog#listItem\",\"name\":\"Home\"}},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blumenthals.com\\\/blog\\\/2009\\\/05\\\/20\\\/google-maps-lbc-changes-upgrades\\\/#listItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Google Maps LBC Changes &#038; Upgrades\",\"previousItem\":{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blumenthals.com\\\/blog\\\/category\\\/google-maps-google-local\\\/#listItem\",\"name\":\"Google Places (Maps &amp; Local)\"}}]},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blumenthals.com\\\/blog\\\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Mike Blumenthal\",\"description\":\"Developing Knowledge about Local Search\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blumenthals.com\\\/blog\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blumenthals.com\\\/blog\\\/author\\\/mike-blumenthal\\\/#author\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blumenthals.com\\\/blog\\\/author\\\/mike-blumenthal\\\/\",\"name\":\"Mike Blumenthal\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blumenthals.com\\\/blog\\\/2009\\\/05\\\/20\\\/google-maps-lbc-changes-upgrades\\\/#authorImage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/4d8617e019d2d1ac91870df8164089168280ad79e57bb264a9f383abaee26b77?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"width\":96,\"height\":96,\"caption\":\"Mike Blumenthal\"}},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blumenthals.com\\\/blog\\\/2009\\\/05\\\/20\\\/google-maps-lbc-changes-upgrades\\\/#webpage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blumenthals.com\\\/blog\\\/2009\\\/05\\\/20\\\/google-maps-lbc-changes-upgrades\\\/\",\"name\":\"Google Maps LBC Changes & Upgrades\",\"description\":\"On Monday the Local Business Center was taken down for maintanence and fixes. We know that there has been a decrease in reports of merged business listings (although there are reports of reviews still merging between businesses). It appears that there have been several changes in the phone verification system as well: -Now the PIN\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blumenthals.com\\\/blog\\\/#website\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blumenthals.com\\\/blog\\\/2009\\\/05\\\/20\\\/google-maps-lbc-changes-upgrades\\\/#breadcrumblist\"},\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blumenthals.com\\\/blog\\\/author\\\/mike-blumenthal\\\/#author\"},\"creator\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blumenthals.com\\\/blog\\\/author\\\/mike-blumenthal\\\/#author\"},\"datePublished\":\"2009-05-20T13:34:43-04:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2009-05-20T13:34:43-04:00\"},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blumenthals.com\\\/blog\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blumenthals.com\\\/blog\\\/\",\"name\":\"Mike Blumenthal\",\"description\":\"Developing Knowledge about Local Search\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/blumenthals.com\\\/blog\\\/#organization\"}}]}\n\t\t<\/script>\n\t\t<!-- All in One SEO -->\n\n","aioseo_head_json":{"title":"Google Maps LBC Changes & Upgrades","description":"On Monday the Local Business Center was taken down for maintanence and fixes. We know that there has been a decrease in reports of merged business listings (although there are reports of reviews still merging between businesses). It appears that there have been several changes in the phone verification system as well: -Now the PIN","canonical_url":"https:\/\/blumenthals.com\/blog\/2009\/05\/20\/google-maps-lbc-changes-upgrades\/","robots":"max-image-preview:large","keywords":"","webmasterTools":{"miscellaneous":""},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/blumenthals.com\/blog\/2009\/05\/20\/google-maps-lbc-changes-upgrades\/#article","name":"Google Maps LBC Changes & Upgrades","headline":"Google Maps LBC Changes &#038; Upgrades","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/blumenthals.com\/blog\/author\/mike-blumenthal\/#author"},"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/blumenthals.com\/blog\/#organization"},"datePublished":"2009-05-20T13:34:43-04:00","dateModified":"2009-05-20T13:34:43-04:00","inLanguage":"en-US","commentCount":9,"mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/blumenthals.com\/blog\/2009\/05\/20\/google-maps-lbc-changes-upgrades\/#webpage"},"isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/blumenthals.com\/blog\/2009\/05\/20\/google-maps-lbc-changes-upgrades\/#webpage"},"articleSection":"Google Places (Maps &amp; Local)"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/blumenthals.com\/blog\/2009\/05\/20\/google-maps-lbc-changes-upgrades\/#breadcrumblist","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","@id":"https:\/\/blumenthals.com\/blog#listItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/blumenthals.com\/blog","nextItem":{"@type":"ListItem","@id":"https:\/\/blumenthals.com\/blog\/category\/google-maps-google-local\/#listItem","name":"Google Places (Maps &amp; Local)"}},{"@type":"ListItem","@id":"https:\/\/blumenthals.com\/blog\/category\/google-maps-google-local\/#listItem","position":2,"name":"Google Places (Maps &amp; Local)","item":"https:\/\/blumenthals.com\/blog\/category\/google-maps-google-local\/","nextItem":{"@type":"ListItem","@id":"https:\/\/blumenthals.com\/blog\/2009\/05\/20\/google-maps-lbc-changes-upgrades\/#listItem","name":"Google Maps LBC Changes &#038; Upgrades"},"previousItem":{"@type":"ListItem","@id":"https:\/\/blumenthals.com\/blog#listItem","name":"Home"}},{"@type":"ListItem","@id":"https:\/\/blumenthals.com\/blog\/2009\/05\/20\/google-maps-lbc-changes-upgrades\/#listItem","position":3,"name":"Google Maps LBC Changes &#038; Upgrades","previousItem":{"@type":"ListItem","@id":"https:\/\/blumenthals.com\/blog\/category\/google-maps-google-local\/#listItem","name":"Google Places (Maps &amp; Local)"}}]},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/blumenthals.com\/blog\/#organization","name":"Mike Blumenthal","description":"Developing Knowledge about Local Search","url":"https:\/\/blumenthals.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/blumenthals.com\/blog\/author\/mike-blumenthal\/#author","url":"https:\/\/blumenthals.com\/blog\/author\/mike-blumenthal\/","name":"Mike Blumenthal","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/blumenthals.com\/blog\/2009\/05\/20\/google-maps-lbc-changes-upgrades\/#authorImage","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/4d8617e019d2d1ac91870df8164089168280ad79e57bb264a9f383abaee26b77?s=96&d=mm&r=g","width":96,"height":96,"caption":"Mike Blumenthal"}},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/blumenthals.com\/blog\/2009\/05\/20\/google-maps-lbc-changes-upgrades\/#webpage","url":"https:\/\/blumenthals.com\/blog\/2009\/05\/20\/google-maps-lbc-changes-upgrades\/","name":"Google Maps LBC Changes & Upgrades","description":"On Monday the Local Business Center was taken down for maintanence and fixes. We know that there has been a decrease in reports of merged business listings (although there are reports of reviews still merging between businesses). It appears that there have been several changes in the phone verification system as well: -Now the PIN","inLanguage":"en-US","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/blumenthals.com\/blog\/#website"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/blumenthals.com\/blog\/2009\/05\/20\/google-maps-lbc-changes-upgrades\/#breadcrumblist"},"author":{"@id":"https:\/\/blumenthals.com\/blog\/author\/mike-blumenthal\/#author"},"creator":{"@id":"https:\/\/blumenthals.com\/blog\/author\/mike-blumenthal\/#author"},"datePublished":"2009-05-20T13:34:43-04:00","dateModified":"2009-05-20T13:34:43-04:00"},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/blumenthals.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/blumenthals.com\/blog\/","name":"Mike Blumenthal","description":"Developing Knowledge about Local Search","inLanguage":"en-US","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/blumenthals.com\/blog\/#organization"}}]},"og:locale":"en_US","og:site_name":"Mike Blumenthal | Developing Knowledge about Local Search","og:type":"article","og:title":"Google Maps LBC Changes &amp; Upgrades","og:description":"On Monday the Local Business Center was taken down for maintanence and fixes. We know that there has been a decrease in reports of merged business listings (although there are reports of reviews still merging between businesses). It appears that there have been several changes in the phone verification system as well: -Now the PIN","og:url":"https:\/\/blumenthals.com\/blog\/2009\/05\/20\/google-maps-lbc-changes-upgrades\/","article:published_time":"2009-05-20T17:34:43+00:00","article:modified_time":"2009-05-20T17:34:43+00:00","twitter:card":"summary","twitter:title":"Google Maps LBC Changes &amp; Upgrades","twitter:description":"On Monday the Local Business Center was taken down for maintanence and fixes. We know that there has been a decrease in reports of merged business listings (although there are reports of reviews still merging between businesses). It appears that there have been several changes in the phone verification system as well: -Now the PIN"},"aioseo_meta_data":{"post_id":"3339","title":null,"description":null,"keywords":null,"keyphrases":null,"primary_term":null,"canonical_url":null,"og_title":null,"og_description":null,"og_object_type":"default","og_image_type":"default","og_image_url":null,"og_image_width":null,"og_image_height":null,"og_image_custom_url":null,"og_image_custom_fields":null,"og_video":null,"og_custom_url":null,"og_article_section":null,"og_article_tags":null,"twitter_use_og":false,"twitter_card":"default","twitter_image_type":"default","twitter_image_url":null,"twitter_image_custom_url":null,"twitter_image_custom_fields":null,"twitter_title":null,"twitter_description":null,"schema":{"blockGraphs":[],"customGraphs":[],"default":{"data":{"Article":[],"Course":[],"Dataset":[],"FAQPage":[],"Movie":[],"Person":[],"Product":[],"ProductReview":[],"Car":[],"Recipe":[],"Service":[],"SoftwareApplication":[],"WebPage":[]},"graphName":"Article","isEnabled":true},"graphs":[]},"schema_type":null,"schema_type_options":null,"pillar_content":false,"robots_default":true,"robots_noindex":false,"robots_noarchive":false,"robots_nosnippet":false,"robots_nofollow":false,"robots_noimageindex":false,"robots_noodp":false,"robots_notranslate":false,"robots_max_snippet":null,"robots_max_videopreview":null,"robots_max_imagepreview":"large","priority":null,"frequency":null,"local_seo":null,"breadcrumb_settings":null,"limit_modified_date":false,"ai":null,"created":"2021-01-07 20:08:47","updated":"2025-12-03 16:58:38","seo_analyzer_scan_date":null},"aioseo_breadcrumb":"<div class=\"aioseo-breadcrumbs\"><span class=\"aioseo-breadcrumb\">\n\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/blumenthals.com\/blog\" title=\"Home\">Home<\/a>\n\t\t<\/span><span class=\"aioseo-breadcrumb-separator\">&raquo;<\/span><span class=\"aioseo-breadcrumb\">\n\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/blumenthals.com\/blog\/category\/google-maps-google-local\/\" title=\"Google Places (Maps &amp; Local)\">Google Places (Maps &amp; Local)<\/a>\n\t\t<\/span><span class=\"aioseo-breadcrumb-separator\">&raquo;<\/span><span class=\"aioseo-breadcrumb\">\n\t\t\tGoogle Maps LBC Changes &amp; Upgrades\n\t\t<\/span><\/div>","aioseo_breadcrumb_json":[{"label":"Home","link":"https:\/\/blumenthals.com\/blog"},{"label":"Google Places (Maps &amp; Local)","link":"https:\/\/blumenthals.com\/blog\/category\/google-maps-google-local\/"},{"label":"Google Maps LBC Changes &#038; Upgrades","link":"https:\/\/blumenthals.com\/blog\/2009\/05\/20\/google-maps-lbc-changes-upgrades\/"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blumenthals.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3339","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blumenthals.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blumenthals.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blumenthals.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blumenthals.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3339"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blumenthals.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3339\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3342,"href":"https:\/\/blumenthals.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3339\/revisions\/3342"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blumenthals.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blumenthals.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blumenthals.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}