Posts tagged local

Instagram mobile photo app user posts photos of a military plane crash that occurred just minutes ago. The user, “vabeachkaren”, is chatting real time with others, stating that the aircraft crashed into her apartment building.

Instagram mobile photo app user posts photos of a military plane crash that occurred just minutes ago.

The user, “vabeachkaren”, is chatting real time with others, stating that the aircraft crashed into her apartment building.

Google Offers in my Gmail Wonder if they are using the same accounting methods as Groupon?

Google Offers in my Gmail

Wonder if they are using the same accounting methods as Groupon?

Location Services Barely on the Map

The Pew Internet and American Life Project released a national survey that found just 4 percent of Americans use location services like Foursquare. That figure is actually lower than when Pew first surveyed online users in May and found 5 percent using a location service. Overall, 7 percent of mobile phone users are also location users. Even among 18-29-year-old Internet users, the figure is just 8 percent.

Unsurprisingly, these services overindex for men, with 6 percent of online men using them vs. 3 percent of women.

adweek.com

Google has just launched Boost, an extension of their Adwords PPC (paid search) offering. This location-based PPC ad product is intended for local businesses. Google Boost is currently available as a beta version in San Francisco, Houston and Chicago. Don’t get too wrapped up in the hype over this (meant to make smaller, local business owners aware and excited to sink some money into it). This is basically PPC for the local search results - a way for google to get more $$ out of their existing search inventory. It’s debatable as to whether or not it will give “local” business a boost - more likely Google Boost will help big retail chains that have the budget, knowledge and resources to make this happen. Google has been dragging their feet on making inclusion, correction, optimization and analytics for the “organic” local listings any more attainable by the small business owner - they profit more if you yearn for top ranking in the local results and are willing to Pay-Per-Click for it.

Google has just launched Boost, an extension of their Adwords PPC (paid search) offering. This location-based PPC ad product is intended for local businesses. Google Boost is currently available as a beta version in San Francisco, Houston and Chicago.

Don’t get too wrapped up in the hype over this (meant to make smaller, local business owners aware and excited to sink some money into it). This is basically PPC for the local search results - a way for google to get more $$ out of their existing search inventory. It’s debatable as to whether or not it will give “local” business a boost - more likely Google Boost will help big retail chains that have the budget, knowledge and resources to make this happen.

Google has been dragging their feet on making inclusion, correction, optimization and analytics for the “organic” local listings any more attainable by the small business owner - they profit more if you yearn for top ranking in the local results and are willing to Pay-Per-Click for it.

Google Gets Physical in the Local/Mobile Race

Sources are saying that Google is planning on distributing mobile devices to local businesses to allow users to check-in and rate the business. If it is true, this bold maneuver could go either way. My initial thoughts…

  • Are there better ways for Google to spend the same budget to inspire mobile users to interact with these local businesses?
  • What will businesses do when they start getting negative ratings? Remove the devices? So ratings will be skewed?
  • How will they choose which businesses get these devices? Large chains with enough traffic to drive the most interaction and content, leaving small mom and pops in the dust?