ChatGPT enables location sharing for more precise local responses
This should result in better local responses from OpenAI's ChatGPT.
Topic: Geopositioning
Why local SEO is thriving in the AI-first search era
AI may dominate search, but local queries still drive action. Discover actionable steps for maximizing your local presence across platforms.
Google Chrome IP masking could radically impact search advertising
Google's plan for IP protection would give them a monopoly on location data and drive up costs for advertisers.
Google Bard now can use your device’s precise location for more relevant local results
To enable this, manage your preferences in location settings.
This day in search marketing history: January 20
Matt Cutts forks guest blogging, plus: Semrush buys Backlinko, ranking factor study, a Google search quality rater interview and more.
Google may suspend merchant sites that show invalid product availability
Google Merchant Center has a new policy for Inaccurate availability due to inconsistent availability between the landing page and checkout pages on your website.
What location data can tell us about the COVID-19 pandemic
Tools used for ad analytics can provide enormous social insights and even speed recovery, but they require clear safeguards.
Google searches now correspond to user location instead of domain
Users can still change their search settings to select a country service if desired.
Take The Google Geo-Location Test: Where Does Google Think You Are?
Submit your results to a survey aiming to understand the accuracy of Google's geo-location data.
The End Is Near For Panoramio, Google To Migrate Photos To Google Maps Views
Googler Evan Rapoport announced this week that Google would be closing Panoramio, the geolocation photo site that lets users upload photos to Google Maps and Google Earth. In place of Panoramio, Google will be migrating photos to its Google Maps Views platform. In an interview with CNET, Rapoport said Panoramio didn’t have a wide enough […]
SearchCap: Google Panda 4.0 Live, Payday Loan Algo Released & Bing Ads Location Reports
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Is eBay A Big Loser In Google’s Panda 4.0 Update? — Winners & Losers Data Yesterday, Google began rolling out their Panda 4.0 update designed to punch low-quality content. That’s generated […]
New Bing Ads Location Report Shows Whether Ads Were Triggered By Physical Location Or Location Interest
The Bing Ads team has added a new Geo Location report that offers more detail on the type of targeting methods used in serving your ads. The report is available under the list of Targeting reports via the Bing Ads API and the web UI. Aptly named, the “Geo location (New version)” report includes two […]
SearchCap: Bing Updates Android App, NameCheap’s New Domain Search & More
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Bing Updates Its Android App With A New Look & Faster Performance Bing has rolled out a new look and feel for its Android app, claiming the updates make it more […]
Yandex Buys Israeli Geo-Location Platform KitLocate
Yandex announced this morning that it has acquired Israeli startup KitLocate. According to third-party sources, the deal was worth “several million euros.” Yandex will gain and maintain a presence in Tel Aviv though the acquisition. The chief virtue of KitLocate is that it can provide location to apps without using much power unlike GPS or triangulation, […]
People, Videos, News: Twitter Adds New Search Filters
Earlier today, Twitter announced that it was bringing a number of new search filters to the site. These include: people, photos, videos, news. There are also “people you follow” and “near you” filters that further refine results. If one were to search for “Super Bowl,” results could then be filtered by those tweets that incorporated […]
Google’s Matt Cutts: User Redirection Based On Location Is Not Spam
Google’s head of search spam, Matt Cutts, posted a video yesterday clearly stating the geo-location or redirecting users based on their location is not spam. Google will not consider a site that uses geo-location techniques as spam. What Google does consider spam is when you redirect GoogleBot to a web page of content that users […]
Yahoo BOSS Expands To Offer Geolocation Data
Yahoo’s Build Your Own Search Service (BOSS) has recently expanded to include geolocation data from two Yahoo services: Placefinder and Placespotter. BOSS is Yahoo’s Search API, available for a fee based on usage. From the blog post, it sounds like Yahoo is closing down Placefinder and Placespotter as standalone, free services, and is incorporating them […]
Google Announces “_nomap” WiFi Opt-out Option, Wants Other Location Providers To Go Along
As promised, Google has announced a way for WiFi router owners to stop Google from including them in the company’s location database. The opt-out requires a change in the name of the wireless network (the SSID) to include _nomap at the end of the name. In other words, if your wireless network is named “McGeehome,” […]
Google: Local Now 40 Percent Of Mobile, Physical Distance Becomes A Ranking Variable For AdWords
Today Google is introducing some new ad formats for mobile and announcing that it will now use location proximity as a scoring factor in deciding which AdWords to show the mobile user. Google’s Surojit Chatterjee also shared some mobile data in the context of announcing the new units and policy: Click to Call is now driving “millions […]
Google Will Offer Wi-Fi Opt-Out Tool To Improve User Privacy & Appease European Regulators
With the smoke still smoldering from Google’s long-running battle over the collection of personal information via unsecured WiFi networks, the company says it’s working on a service that will allow WiFi router owners to opt-out from being included in Google’s location services. In a blog post yesterday, Google says the opt-out will be available to […]
Bing Maps Tweaks Its Navigation
Bing has announced a set of much-needed tweaks to the Bing Maps user interface. Rather than scattering navigation options both above and below (not to mention off to the side of) the map itself, all menu options are now accessible in a nav bar that stretches across the screen above the map. It’s a much […]
Google Adds Local News For Smartphone Users
Android and iPhone users can now get local news via the mobile version of Google News. It’s accessible by visiting news.google.com from a mobile browser. Google News will ask for permission to use your current location (if you haven’t already given that permission), and if you allow it, a “News near you” section will be […]
Police Raid Google’s Korean Office Over Location Data
Police apparently raided Google’s Korean offices in Seoul “on suspicion its mobile advertising unit AdMob had illegally collected location data without consent,” according to a Bloomberg report. This is the most extreme action taken by any government in the growing controversy over smartphone location data — essentially criminalizing data collection. In the US Apple and […]
Dutch Agency Orders Google To Remove Data About Citizens’ WiFi Routers
Dutch data officials have ordered Google to give the country’s residents a way to remove data that Google has about where their WiFi routers are located. It’s part of the ongoing dispute over Google’s collection of personal information via unencrypted wifi networks — something the company has said all along was accidental. According to the […]
AdWords Preview Tool Gets Mobile-Focused Facelift
Ever wonder how your AdWords ads look on different devices in different places? Google has added some features to its AdWords Preview tool in an effort to address these issues. In keeping with Google’s effort to monetize searches on mobile devices, changes to the tool are designed to help marketers aiming to optimize mobile ads. […]
Google Latitude App Now Available for iPhone
Google has released Latitude for the iPhone. Now a true mobile app, it was a web app and has been a layer for Google Maps on Android for some time. The new app takes advantage of iPhone 4’s multitasking and can run the background continuously to broadcast your location 24/7. There are also simple and […]
Google Making Location More Obvious, Prominent
I’m not seeing it exactly but Google has said the company is making location more “transparent” or more obvious to users so that they can control it and, presumably, offer better location information to Google for an improved overall experience. From the Google Public Policy Blog: Today we’re moving your location setting to the left-hand […]
Live Blog: Right Time, Right Place – Location Services & Marketing
I’m at TWTRCON today, where the “Right Time, Right Place” panel will look at location services and marketing. We’ve got both Foursquare and Gowalla taking part.
Twitter: The Impending Local Search Tsunami?
Last week at the Chirp conference, Twitter announced three big initiatives that have the potential to collectively rock the world of local marketing:
New Google UI In Wild Again, With Auto-Detected Location
The new jazzy Google user interface that Google has been testing since November 2009 has been showing up more on user screens. It resurfaced in February, and now we have been hearing more reports of people noticing the new interface and our very own Vanessa Fox also has been seeing it on her browser. NOTE: […]
Report From SMX West: An Overview Of Augmented Reality Mobile Apps
I was sitting in the mobile app panel at SMX West when the subject turned to “augmented reality.” Some great live blogging of the presentation by Cindy Krum is on her RankMobile site. Augmented reality is basically presenting some kind of digital overlay on top of a view of the “real world.” Think about what […]
Google Search Suggestions For Mobile Get Locally Relevant
At the recent Google Search Evolution event late last year, Google Engineering VP Vic Gundotra demonstrated search suggestions on mobile devices that varied by location. He showed that query suggestions could and would be different based on user location. Today Google is rolling that improvement out for the iPhone and Android devices. The geographic point […]
SearchCap: The Day In Search, December 22, 2009
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Behavioral Targeting & Google Analytics: How To Create Personas Following my last post on behavioral targeting, which was an overview of the field, I will provide a more hands-on approach in […]
Yahoo Showing Local Results On Non-Local Queries
Following in others’ footsteps, Yahoo says it’s now showing its local shortcut on certain queries that don’t include a local modifier. When you search for the name of a business, or a local business category, Yahoo will show the local shortcut if it believes the search has local intent. For me, typing “pizza” into Yahoo’s […]
Google For iPhone Adds “My Location” Feature
When the new iPhone operating system came out, version 3.0, mobile Safari was able to pass your location to the browser. Google recently updated the iPhone version of Google to allow searchers to send Google their location, which should help make the search results more tailored to that searcher. When I first looked at how […]
SearchCap: The Day In Search, June 1, 2009
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Google Updates AdWords Editor (Version 7.5.1) The Inside AdWords Blog announced the release of a new version of AdWords Editor, the desktop editing tool for managing your AdWords campaigns. The new […]
Google Starts To Leverage Latitude Location Through New Apps
Google is now expanding its map-based, location-aware service Latitude beyond the the Latitude destination in new ways with a public location sharing badge for third party sites and other apps that incorporate location. The first of those other apps is Google Talk. In the first example, Google has enabled those already signed up for Latitude […]
Using Analytics For Local Search Optimization
Many businesses seek to target local searchers for their products and services, and careful review of a site's analytics is one of the key weapons in a local business's competitive arsenal. Here are a few tips on what metrics to look at and how to use some of them in optimizing your site to rank better in local search results.
Google Brings ‘My Location’ To The Desktop
Knowing where a searcher is when s/he conducts a search is one of the big promises and opportunities in mobile search. Advertisers want the precise targeting, and it’s also a convenience for the user who doesn’t need to indicate a location when looking for products and services. There are already several tools and services that […]
Google Confirms & Talks About Expanded Local Results
In a blog post today, Google confirms what we and others reported last week — they’re now showing local results on non-local queries. Google says they’re guessing the searcher’s location, “in most cases” by using your IP address. As I pointed out last week, this isn’t always the most accurate solution. And, as Greg Sterling […]