Google Places For Business Gets Its Own iPhone App For Managing Listings [Update: Google Removed App]

Local business owners have a new tool for managing their Google Places For Business listing: a dedicated app that works on the iPhone and iPod Touch.

There’s no official announcement that I can find about the app, and as best I can tell, the iClarified blog was first to report on it. The Google For Places Business app is a free download in the iTunes app store.

I haven’t tried it yet (and may not be able to given the ongoing mess as Google merges the Places dashboard with Google+ Local), but here’s how Google describes the app’s capabilities:

Business owners can use the app to:
– Verify your business listing directly from your phone
– Update your business information: hours, address, contact information, and description
– Post beautiful pictures of your business on your local Google+ page
– Track web traffic going to your listing
– Manage multiple business locations from one app

What’s not clear is which kinds of local business owners can actually use the app; some are still stuck in the limbo between Google Places and Google+ Local. Given that situation, my jaw is practically on the ground over the fact that there’s an iPhone app for managing Google business listings.

While I pick my jaw up, here are the screenshots from the app listing on iTunes.

If you get the app and try it out, let us know in the comments about your experience.

Postscript, an hour later: On Twitter, Honeya Ordoubadi let me know that the app is still listed in the app store, but can’t actually be downloaded now. Sure enough, I’m getting this error message. We’ll try to find out what’s going on in the morning.

Postscript, Monday morning: The app is now completely gone from the iTunes app store. You can’t even bring it up by searching for the exact, complete app name. No reply from Google.

Postscript, Tuesday April 23: A Google spokesperson tells us that an early version of the Google Places For Business app was inadvertently released and has been removed from the app store. The company doesn’t have a specific timeline for its actual release.