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: Google Voice Search & Search By Image Comes To Desktops Mobile innovation is fueling Google’s search offerings for the desktop, as the company today announced two new search interfaces — Voice […]
Yesterday David Mihm was pointing out on Twitter that Google had created a number of new city sites or portals. They appear to be the phoenix rising out of the ashes of Hotpot. As I wrote yesterday on my own blog, this is Google’s effort to bring a number of initiatives together in a single […]
A fascinating study published last year compares the reviews and reviewers at three local business websites: Yelp, Citysearch and Yahoo Local. And, in explaining how Yelp overtook the other two, it also hints — in my opinion — at how Google is trying to beat Yelp by using Yelp’s own playbook. Citysearch and Yahoo Local […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: IAC Revises And Re-Ups Its Deal With Google IAC, the parent of Ask.com, the Daily Beast and Citysearch, today announced it has amended and extended its distribution agreement with Google through […]
You won’t hear us (or Google) talking about Google Hotpot anymore. The company has announced that the Hotpot name is a thing of the past, and the ratings and review experience is being formally added into Google Places. While you can still access Hotpot right now at www.google.com/hotpot, that URL will eventually redirect to Google […]
Google Maps. Google Places. Google Earth. Google Hotpot. Google Latitude. Google Street View. Different mobile and desktop versions of some of those. Different Android and iPhone versions of some. The list could go on. If you think Google has too many locally-oriented products, you’re not alone. Marissa Mayer, Google’s VP of Search who recently began […]
When the digirati descend on Austin for the SXSW interactive conference next month, Google is hoping their smartphones will brim with local listings and reviews on Places and Hotpot. To that end, the company today began a promotion to get local businesses, along with Austin visitors and residents, on board with the search giant’s local […]
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: “We Do Not Copy Results. Period.” The war of words between Google and Bing has escalated today with a strong denial about copied search results from Bing’s Yusuf Mehdi, who […]
It’s all starting to come together. Yesterday Google announced that it was adding check-ins (and loyalty categories) to Latitude. It also announced the global expansion of HotPot, its recommendations tool. Google Places apps for both iPhone and Android allow people to rate and review businesses (HotPot’s objective). And on Places Pages, in Android, you can […]
Google has acquired fflick, according to TechCrunch. The price is reportedly $10 million. Is it a talent acquisition, a tool acquisition or both? It’s both. Using Twitter, the fflick service analyzes and organizes comments about movies: overall, most recent, positive, what your friends have said and so on. This is a very interesting service and […]
There’s a Maps app on your iPhone, a Google Mobile app that includes access to Google Maps, and now there’s a third option for Google-based local search and discovery: a dedicated Google Places app. It’s just announced today and is already available in the iPhone’s app store. The app seems to focus more on the […]
Here’s a sign of how intent Google is on increasing adoption of Hotpot, its local recommendations engine: Hotpot activity from your friends has been added to the Google Maps home page. If you’re logged in to your Google account, you’ll see recent activity from your Hotpot friends in the left-side window. (Aside: Clearly, my Hotpot […]
Google has its eyes on a mobile payment service that would allow users to pay for common goods and services by waving or tapping their mobile phones. That’s according to a BusinessWeek report that cites “two people familiar with the plans.” BusinessWeek’s sources say the payment service could debut this year. It would be based […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Confirmed: Yahoo Closing Buzz, Traffic APIs – Maybe Delicious & AltaVista News is traveling fast about a leaked slide from a Yahoo “all hands” meeting earlier this week that listed several […]
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on Search Engine Land and from other places across the web. From Search Engine Land: Q&A: Google’s Sengupta On The Chrome OS Cr-48 Laptop Yesterday, after writing my review of the Google Chrome OS Cr-48 notebook, I had a chance to catch up with Google product […]
Google is launching a new campaign in Portland, Oregon, today that’s designed to promote HotPot, the company’s recently announced service that invites users to review local businesses and then feeds those reviews into Google Places. The marketing is clever and the benefits for local businesses seem obvious, but there’s a problem: Google is breaking its […]
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 Image Search Now With Leaderboard Ads The Google AdWords Blog announced a new ad format available on the image search vertical. The new ad format is the old-style leaderboard display […]
Google has just launched Hotpot, a personalized recommendations engine based on what you like and what your friends like. When Facebook launched Places to compete with Foursquare, we here at Search Engine Land explained how even though it had the same name as Google Places, it was actually entirely different. After all, you don’t check […]