New Google Maps features: Local Guides redesign, AI captions, photo sharing
New Maps tools surface recent media, suggest camera roll uploads, and flag top reviewers with gold profiles, as Google expands AI captions.
Topic: Local Guides
Google’s Local Guide program: Wins, woes and what’s next?
Is Google’s Local Guides program a rewarding community initiative or a flawed system? Explore its successes, failures and ethical dilemmas.
What to do when Google changes your GBP information
Learn how to effectively manage and protect your Google Business Profile from unexpected updates by Google.
Google Maps removed policy-abiding reviews from Local Guides
Google is working on restoring the reviews over the next few weeks.
Google may update business hours in local listings with AI
So make sure to routinely review your business hours to ensure they are accurate.
Google adds more discovery to Google Maps with ‘community feed’
The new feed offers more opportunities for local business exposure.
Local SEO Recommendation: Google Business Profile
If your business is more than just a website, then there is a tool that you need to use. Google Business Profile is a free business listings service which works directly with Google Maps, Google Search, and Google Ads. Google Business Profile creates profiles of businesses which it shares with Search and Maps, and by […]
The average GMB profile has 73 reviews, 45 photos, 5 Posts and a star rating of 4.08
The findings come from an analysis of 2.4 million local listings in over 30 business categories.
Happy 15th birthday to Google Maps, the company’s second most important product
Google updates the app that embodies its commitment to local search.
Google Maps becomes more ‘social’ with Local Guides follow feature
Local Guides are part of the reason GMB and Maps are so successful.
Reservations, AR navigation coming to Google Maps
The new features are aimed at making Maps a hub for travelers.
Google Q&A: More than 90 percent of questions unanswered by business owners
The answers that are there are mostly coming from Local Guides, who may or may not provide accurate information.
Google selling Zagat to restaurant recommendations site The Infatuation
Google no longer needs Zagat as it once did.
Google Questions and Answers: Everything you need to know
Looking to take advantage of this new Google My Business feature? Columnist Joy Hawkins explains how to get started with Google Q&A.
Google My Business dashboard showing video upload section for some business owners
Some business owners can now upload videos to their local listings in their Google My Business photos section.
Report: Google exploring sale of Zagat reviews
Might there be an Act 3 for the venerable restaurant guide?
Yelp increasingly cracking down on ‘review solicitation’ across the internet
The company wants to stop the practice of asking for customer reviews on its site, and third-party sites as well.
The holidays arrived early for local marketers
The holiday season has arrived early for locally focused marketers. Consider the developments that have occurred just in the past week: Google My Business API added new features, including the ability to manage your Google Posts. Facebook announced a number of tools and partnerships supporting local discovery, including booking and food ordering. Google said it […]
Google now has 50M Local Guides adding content to Google Maps and Search
The number of Guides has grown by 10x in just one year.
SearchCap: Google knowledge panel ads, Google Maps videos & AMP survey
Below is what happened in search today, as reported on and from other places across the web.
Google Maps local listings can now have videos uploaded
Google Local Guides and others can now add videos to local results if they use an Android device.
SearchCap: Google penalties, Google appeals & 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: Don’t trust Google to structure your local dataApr 11, 2016 by Andrew Shotland As Google increasingly incorporates direct answers and other types of featured snippets into search results pages, columnist Andrew […]
Google Using Points To Boost User Reviews, Beef Up Maps Content
A couple of years ago, Google created a program in the mold of the Yelp Elite Squad called City Experts. It was intended to accelerate the acquisition of “high-quality” local business reviews. The name of the program was changed in January of this year to Local Guides. The original program offered rewards based on the […]
Foursquare “Experts” Reintroduces Gamification Into New App
In order to broaden its appeal Foursquare has been backing away from its origins as a “check-in app” for a long time. The banishment of check-ins into a separate app, Swarm, seemed to mark a complete break with the company’s “gamification” legacy. Not so apparently. Gamification is in Foursquare’s DNA. So perhaps it’s no surprise […]