Local Search

Here's an interesting case of Google's local organic algorithm failing to produce the right results, and it tells us a bunch about how they're trying to produce those local results in the organic results outside of the 3-pack. I'm sitting here near Sunriver, Oregon, and I search for "restaurants near me". The 3-pack looks pretty good...it's got the pushpin very accurately located for me (within yards, in fact, despite the fact that I'm on a PC connected via my cable internet provider, not my cellphone with GPS). (more…)

I unfortunately have to report that my Google+ My Business Page Finder tool no longer shows the Google+ page for the business in its search results.

Why not?

Because the Google Places API, which used to show the Google+ page in its response, now returns a Google Maps page instead.

I haven't seen any announcement of this, but the docs on the Place Details Request have been changed.

(more…)

In trying to help a client of mine fix some nutty listing info on Citysearch, I was instructed by Citysearch support people to click the "Unlock listing" link on the page.

OK, I can do that...

But that takes you to Yext, who apparently is attempting to manage this process. I say "attempting", because here's what you get:

(more…)

I'm not one of those who think Google is inherently evil, and that everything they do is a devious attempt to trick us into spending more on AdWords. OK, some of what they do is...but they're a for-profit company, and need to do their best to make a buck for their shareholders...and that's OK.

The problem with having a virtual monopoly on any given space is that there's no real incentive to be better than the competition. If you release a version of your software and it's got problems, the customers won't leave you in droves because--well, you're really the only game in town.

(more…)

Discovered today: when you're looking at the maps results for a Google search, and click on one of the listings to expand it (here, I'm clicking on the result for J. Rollins Art of Framing): what ACTUALLY expands is the listing above it: (more…)

It USED to be that when you set your location via Search Tools in Google, it would control where Google thought you were searching from, affecting the organic/local universal results and the maps results (yeah, the AdWords results were ALWAYS messed up on this, and still are). (more…)