Last October, MapQuest started outsourcing local business listings management to Yext. The “claim your MapQuest listings” page is hosted by Yext (I believe) with a co-branded look and feel. Yesterday, MapQuest notified business users that its local business center and basic local listings product would be formally shutting down. Here’s the text of the email that went out: […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Yelp Turns Up The Heat: 285 Consumer Alerts Issued Over Fake Reviews It’s been almost a year and a half since Yelp began issuing Consumer Alerts when a business on its […]
Thousands of hotels listed within Google+ Local appear to have had links leading to their official sites “hijacked” and replaced with ones leading to third-party booking services. Google+ Local listings are what Google depends on to provide results in Google Maps or Google Search, when people look for local businesses. A Hijacked URL For example, […]
In a story reported by NBCNews.com’s World News, the popular Berlin square Theodor Heuss Platz was momentarily renamed “Adolf Hitler Platz” on Google Maps. Google apologized for the error in an email sent to NBC, stating, “We were made aware of a wrong and inappropriate Berlin street name on Google Maps and have corrected this […]
Call it Google “Hotel View.” According to the Associated Press (via Fox), Google is photographing hotel interiors as part of an effort to enhance its travel content. Perhaps even more interesting, says the article, is that the initiative is being run not under the umbrella of Google Maps but through Google Wallet. It’s not clear whether […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: AdWords Bid Management And Account Structure Mistakes To Avoid On my one-year anniversary of working as an AdWords practitioner instead of a Googler, Brad Geddes interviewed me about Quality Score for […]
It’s Christmas Eve, time for all good boys and girls to be expecting Santa Claus to be bringing them gifts. But where is jolly old St. Nick on his journey? Once again, there are two major services tracking him: NORAD and Google. Below, our annual review of the tracking sites and methods of using them […]
There’s something of a void where local business marketing is concerned. Local marketers understand they need to target keyword queries in SEO and PPC campaigns, but they assume they know what people search for, and they miss out on valuable referrals because of it. Here’s a brief guide on local keyword research to close the […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: England’s Lulworth Cove Tops Bing’s List Of Most Popular 2013 Homepage Images Bing has released its ten most popular homepage images of the year, with England’s Lulworth Cove off of the […]
On the heels of a very recent iOS Maps update, Google has further updated and optimized its search app for iOS 7. Some of the changes are cosmetic: “iOS 7 styling and true full screen browsing” for example. There’s also improved image search for the iPad and better integration with Google Maps. Google Now also seems 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: Google’s Latest Transparency Report Shows Rise In Content Removal Requests From Russia & Turkey Google announced today it has released its eighth Transparency Report since 2010 when the search engine began […]
If you go to Google Maps and look at the Pegman used for browsing street view images, you will see the Pegman is wearing a Santa hat. The Santa Pegman is not new, it was shown to us when Google had a welcome back party for the Pegman in the new version of Google Maps. […]
Last night, the NY Times reported that the man primarily responsible for Microsoft’s Photosyth product, Blaise Agüera y Arcas, is joining Google. Agüera y Arcas is not simply an engineer or technician, he offers a rare combination of technical expertise, design and product vision. Agüera y Arcas joined Microsoft when his 2003 startup, Seadragon, was acquired by Microsoft Research […]
During the recent InsideLocal webinar series, I’ve had the chance to gather the opinions and feelings of the hundreds of search agencies, consultants, “in-bound” marketers and business owners who logged in to listen. We ran a number of on-the-spot surveys (or polls) during each webinar, which helped to complement the expert views provided by our […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: New Bing Ads Solution Center at Search Engine Land We are pleased to announce the launch of the Bing Ads Solutions Center, a resource for digital marketers and search advertisers, in […]
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’s Christmas & Kwanzaa Decorations Are Live For 2013 A few weeks ago, Google added their Hanukkah decorations, but now that Christmas and Kwanzaa are just around the corner, Google has […]
In October, Google started adding Google Now style cards to its PC Maps. Now, Google is adding some of those same features to its iOS Maps apps. If you update Google Maps for iOS and sign in, you can now see flight, hotel, and restaurant reservations from Gmail in Maps — and then search or […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: It’s True! Bing Ads Allows Use Of Exclamation Mark In Ad Titles After reading the news yesterday that Bing Ads has made a change to its Editorial Guidelines prohibiting third-party sellers […]
Yesterday Microsoft announced “Bing Maps Preview” for Windows 8.1 (including tablets). The new mapping app offers a range of enhanced features and capabilities. It seeks to bring highly realistic, 3-D imagery together with a more intuitive UI. Google Earth and what used to be called Microsoft Virtual Earth have always been a bit slow and […]
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 Shopping Outpaces Amazon Same-Seller Sales On Cyber Monday, Black Friday Over the extended holiday shopping weekend, Google Shopping same seller sales have been growing faster than Amazon among large retailers. […]
The (relatively) new Google Maps is certainly visually richer than the old Maps UI. However it may be somewhat less functional. As one example, it eliminates one of my favorite and most-used features: “search nearby.” It’s now also somewhat harder to access multiple results on a category query, ironically. Yesterday, Google Operating System spotted a […]
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 Keyword Planner Now Shows Trademarked Terms At some point recently, Google started to indicate terms that are trademarked in the Keyword Planner with the TM mark. Dan Shure of Evolving […]
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 Enables “OK Google” Hands-Free Voice Search On PCs Through a Chrome browser extension users can now invoke the hotword (or hot phrase) “OK Google” to initiate hands-free searches on the […]
In time for the holiday travel season, Google Maps now includes street views for a number of transit locations across the globe. Yesterday, a post on the Google Maps blog claimed the site has added street views for 16 international airports, more than 50 train and subway stations, as well as a Hong Kong cable […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the Web. From Search Engine Land: Twitter Improves Search On Mobile Apps By Adding Toggles & Photo Filters Twitter announced they have improved the search capabilities on the iOS and Android mobile apps. Twitter added: A toggle […]
Google Maps is making an exception to its process for reviewing image removal requests, and speeding up the actions needed to replace a satellite image of a 14-year old shooting victim. Following a story broadcast on KTVU-TV, a CNN affiliate in Oakland, California and a report on CNN.com, Google claims it will take approximately eight days […]
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’s Matt Cutts: Don’t Duplicate Your Meta Descriptions Google’s Matt Cutts, the head of search spam, released a video today providing an SEO tip on meta descriptions. Matt said, do not […]
Once the leader and innovator in online mapping, MapQuest has fallen pretty far from that perch. While the brand survives and the site is still widely used, it has for several years been overshadowed by rivals including Google and more recently Apple. According to recent comScore data MapQuest’s mobile apps aren’t in the top 15, although […]
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’s Matt Cutts: When Commenting On Blog Posts, Try To Use Your Real Name In a recent video published by Google’s head of search spam, Matt Cutts talks about are blog […]
Yelp has long maintained that the company has one of the best (if not the best) local data sets out there. There are third parties that have come up with findings that don’t agree with that claim. Recently, Yelp decided to take matters into its own hands and benchmark itself and the quality of its local […]
In February, Google announced the limited release of AdWords Offer Extensions, which allowed advertisers to dedicate extra real estate in their search ads to promoting in-store coupons and discounts. Offer Extensions didn’t make much of a splash when they debuted, and now it turns out they were sunsetted on November 1st. Google posted the following alert […]
In this week’s Search In Pictures, here are the latest images culled from the Web, showing what people eat at the search engine companies, how they play, who they meet, where they speak, what toys they have, and 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: SEMPO Asks Search Marketers To Take 9th Annual State Of Search Survey Just after publishing its annual salary survey results, SEMPO is calling for participants to take part in its 9th […]
The new full-screen Google Maps were announced this summer at Google’s developer conference. However, the company is still rolling it out to users. Today on the Google LatLong blog, a number of new (or returning) features were introduced. Among them, the “Pegman” Street View icon is back. He/it appears in the lower right corner of […]
A big change in Android 4.4 is: those using Google’s new mobile operating system, nicknamed “KitKat,” can search for businesses right from within the Phone app. How’s it work? For me, it’s awful. Google+ Invades The Android 4.4 “KitKat” Phone App: What It Means For Businesses & People is our separate article that explores the integration […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the Web. From Search Engine Land: Image Mismatch: The Latest Google Webmaster Tools Manual Action Penalty Google has a new manual action penalty within their guidelines named image mismatch. Image mismatch is when the images on your […]
Yesterday, comScore’s US smartphone market share figures for September came out. There weren’t many surprises — except for one thing: the Google Maps app has fallen three spots in comScore’s rankings. The smartphone app, which used to be the most popular in the US, fell from 5th to 8th position in comScore’s “Top 15 apps” […]
Google’s Hotel Finder, which launched in June 2011, is now available on mobile devices. Google said all you need to do is go to www.google.com/hotels directly on your smart phone and search for your destination. Listings will come up almost immediately, giving you the ability to filter the search results by price, hotel class, user […]
I recently got a new Android phone and found a little card in the box advertising Ingress, the “massively multi-player location-based alternate reality game from Niantic Labs at Google.” Ingress had slipped past my notice despite Greg Sterling’s mention of it nearly a year ago. Yet, here it was, already preloaded as an app in […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the Web. From Search Engine Land: Microsoft’s FY2014 Q1 Earnings Report Includes 47% Growth In Search Ad Revenue Yesterday’s Microsoft FY2014 Q1 earnings report showed the company generated $18.53 billion in total revenues, with 47 percent growth […]