Fixing incorrect business information
I was just reading through Miriam’s Solas webdesign blog and read something I didn’t knew was there before. Here goes the story:
If you encounter some incorrect business information for Emergency Services in Google it is possible to use a special contact form to notify Google of these errors.
If you’ve discovered incorrect business information for an emergency service, a police station, a fire patrol, a hospital, a shelter, or a similar service, please complete and submit the form below. Google Maps gathers information from a variety of sources, including websites and Yellow Pages directories. Occasionally, this information may be incorrect or outdated.
I wanted to share this information to those reading my blog as I thought this is quite important, and we all want accurate information - especially when you need it the most
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Google Notebooks and Security - a wake up call
This is a public safety warning.
Google indexes public notebooks. Their robots.txt shows Google doesn’t disallow this. They only prevent the search results from being indexed, as you can see on the following image, or by looking directly at robots.txt
As some recent small research from Arjan Snaterse has pointed out, these notebooks can be used to influence ranking. As we look into the results in google of indexed notebooks, we can already see big amounts of spam appearing.
Now I’m wondering what Google’s goal is to be indexing these notebooks. To me some people’s personal notes don’t add up to my user experience, especially when they are cluttering up the results with big fat cans of spam. While you might not see these ranking on first page in Google.com. They do appear in Microsoft’s Live Search.
Now why is this article called “Google Notebooks and security“?
Not only do these Notebooks have contain Spam. These notebooks also contain people’s private account information. Usernames, Passwords, Grocery lists, everything is stored in these notebooks and it is being made easy by Google themselves by providing plugins to easily add content to your notebook from within Firefox.
Ofcourse we can argue if its the notebook user their own fault, storing their private information inside these notebooks. But Google needs to make it more clear to users that whenever they Share their notebook with anyone, their information get’s public. Same goes for your Google Reader shared items by the way. By using some creative Google queries you will be able to gain access to merchant accounts, people’s private email. etc.
My opinion? Google, take some action and prevent this from happening, take responsibility in this! Make it more clear to users that their information is Public and prevent fraud from happening.
Thijs Bosschert, an expert on security and IT forensics, argues:
“People don’t seem to know that ’sharing’ your notebook means that you make the data in it public. This means that before you know it someone will find your grocery list with a Google query. Or worse, your account information you had put there to remember it.”
Legal Disclaimer: any action/activity that gets carried out or envolves from the posting listed above, is not my responsibility. The information provided is of informative purpose only.
Google Maps embedded in ATM Machine
This is the first time I saw this, Google Maps embedded in an ATM machine of “La Caixa”. I don’t know how long it has been there and I’ve been living in Barcelona for almost 10 months now and use these ATM machines often. I was planning on buying some tickets for a concerts using one of these “ServiCaixa” ATM machines of La Caixa. I couldn’t find what I was looking for so I decided to go into the Help (ayuda) section of the machine. There I found the ability to look for closest service centers of La Caixa. As you can see on the picture, this was implemented with the help of Google Maps. 
Cool to see Google Maps embedded in Kiosks and such. I read about embedding Google Maps before, offering directions and Coupons at gas pump stations, but other than just the reports I didn’t see any real-life implementations.
If you know of some more examples, please post them in the comment section!
Terms of Service & FAQ updated for Google Maps API
The Google Maps team announced that they just updated their Google Maps API Terms of Service. Also they updated the FAQ (and hope to keep it updated regularly).
I’ve quickly read through the FAQ and ToS find it more thorough than before.
For a Change Log overview you’d have to go here.
Update:
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If you prefer to read also about the bad side of this story, Go and read this article from Barry from nearby.org.uk.
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Or this really helpful article from Ed Parson himself explaining the Terms of Service
KML Handbook released!
As many of you might know I am quite a fan of KML. In the past, I released a tutorial, the definitive guide on using KML and sitemaps for SEO, on how to use KML and sitemaps for Local Search and Google Maps Optimization. With Maps and Local Search behavior getting more important in the Universal Search landscape it is important to know how KML can help you get more traffic to your website or how to create better, faster and more beautiful mashups.
That’s why I want my readers to know that the Geo Developer Blog just informed that the KML handbook is now available for pre-sale and it should be available soon!
The KML Handbook is written by Josie Wernecke, the writer of the KML 2.1 and 2.2 documentation. The book covers the basic elements as well as lesser known subjects. Also good to know that Google is officially supporting the book. If you really want to get deeper into KML and want an ol’fashion printed book to explain you all this, pre-order your copy now!
Google Street View also in Italy!
Just a few days ago I reported about Google Street View available in Spain. Italy now has the follow up! It is available in Rome, Florence and Milan.
As I said before, I expect more countries and cities to be announced soon!
Google Local Business Center awaiting updates
Mike was fast with his catch on the LBC awaiting an update! I wonder if it has something to do with his previous post that has drawn some attention.
Anyway, here’s the screenshot!
Update: as Maps Guide Brian posted in the Google Groups the Local Business Center will also undergo some maintenance the 6th of November.
Slideshare as a citation source
Some of us might know Slideshare, the online platform where you can store your presentation slides to share with the rest of the world. It appears that this website is a valuable source for local citation building. The real value, or the amount of it that might affect your ranking could vary. If your presentation on Slideshare is doing well, even the better. This all may sound a bit fuzzy, but I will try and explain with the following example:
I noticed our Local Business listing for our company was taken down. So I checked the Local Business center and found out it was not suspended, not inactive, it was just nowhere to be found in the search results.
The regular keyphrase I use to see if our business is still there is the company name. Whereas we normally we would be in pole position in the 10pack, we were now in 8th, but with a listing that derived its source from the Slideshare website.
Curious of course, I went to the Slideshare website where one of our presentations from SMX Madrid was listed. One of the slides had the company name and phone numbers listed and apparently was being indexed due to the transcript of the presentation.
The data of the company was blended with the results of Slideshare, causing the URL of Slideshare.net to appear. The information taken from the Slideshare transcript also appeared in the ‘webpages’ tab as one of the citation sources.
So I’m wondering, what is the real value of citation sources? Is it the domain that counts or just the per-page popularity? What is exactly needed to be a citation? In our case it was just the company name and phone number that was enough for Google to blend all our information in ‘the cluster’ with our listing. Please let us know your thoughts or experiences in the comment section!
PS: after entering the Local Business Center and updating our listing with basically no major changes it appeared back, where it should be; on top of the 10pack.
Spain second country to have Google StreetView
Spain is now the second country in Europe to have StreetView available, in 4 cities, Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia and Seville. This was the announcement made yesterday on the Google LatLong blog. The first country to have StreetView available was France, soon after the Tour de France took place.
So now you will be able to view the city I live in, Barcelona, by using the StreetView option. The LatLong blogs shows some examples of the architecture in this city, including the famous Sagrada Familia and the Casa Milà.
The imagery available in StreetView was quite recently taken, this seems to correspond with when I blogged about StreetView visiting Barcelona at the beginning of August.
As reports were made of seeing StreetView vehicles in other countries in Europe including Germany and the Netherlands I suspect these will be available soon.
Local Barcelona tip: This is the coffee shop (cafe mono) around the corner where we usually go. They serve good Italian coffee!
Local Search with Google Earth on the iPhone!
Google just released one of their most popular products, Google Earth, with over 400 million downloads for the iPhone! It’s a free download from the iTunes App store and it also features the My Location feature. Local Search information with Google Earth right on your iPhone! The iPhone seems to be a perfect device for navigating Google Earth as well using the tilt/gyro sensors.
There is a button in the application that will find businesses directly located near you. Even the more reason for Small Business Owners to get their business listed in the Local Business Center.
Remember, the iphone is a very popular phone so plenty of opportunities/new clients waiting to find your business!
Download the application in the App store.
Video after the break!
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