Google has put up a list of all their geo related twitter accounts and this is something I wanted to share with you in case you haven’t read it already.

twitter.com/GoogleMaps
twitter.com/GoogleEarth
twitter.com/EarthOutreach
twitter.com/SketchUp
twitter.com/3DWH
twitter.com/Modelyourtown
twitter.com/GoogleSkyMap

The twitter accounts are pretty self explanatory.

BTW: remember you can follow me on twitter too! @martijnbeijk is where you will find my tweets.

Post from: Local Search - martijnbeijk.com

Google’s Geo related Twitter accounts

As part of catching up with writing I wanted to mention something that Google has launched since beginning of march. GA-IQ is a test, for people who use Google Analytics. You can take an individual test to set a score and receive a certificate from Google when qualified. The test is mainly focused on implementation, measuring campaigns and usage of reports. Because interpretation of the data must always be done by humans there is a strong responsability for people working with Analytics data.

Google has put up a new website with learning material, both in written text and screencasts. Learn more about this by visiting the conversion university website.
In order to pass the test you need a minimum score of 75%. I can hereby notify you that I passed the test with a score of 92%.

Do you think you are also up for it? Take the test here.
When finished (or when you decide not to take the test) try and see if you are up for tracking some of your local campaigns using Google Analytics. I wrote an article called ‘Tracking Local Search traffic using Analytics‘ on Mike Blumenthal’s blog.

Post from: Local Search - martijnbeijk.com

Google Analytics Individual Qualification

You can find the guidelines by clicking on the following link:
Google Help Center Guidelines for Local Business Center Submissions

Honestly, I still find the guidelines a bit vague, taken into account previous statements;
“be as descriptive if you can for your business in your business title’ doesn’t really correspond with “Represent your business as it appears in real life”. Or is this just my point of view?

Can I use “Italian Ice cream and Cappuccino Bar Bella Napoli” or should it just say “Bella Napoli” because I registered with chamber of commerce with that name?
In my opinion it should add up to the user experience and thus allowing the first one.

In the Help Center, Google is now also referring to the Google Maps group for Business Owners where they can report abuse of the Quality Guidelines.

Post from: Local Search - martijnbeijk.com

Quality Guidelines and reinclusion for Google Maps

Google just introduced their Google suggest feature on all search engines. Although I find this feature helpful and promising, it doesn’t follow their philosophy:

1) Best locally relevant results served globally.

I tried some keyword searches and noticed how often Google suggest tries to give you local results. Almost each (local) search will give you suggestions with geomodifiers (locations).
Now here’s the screenshot:

So why do I think it fails? Well, imagine this. I’m living in Barcelona at the moment, I am using Google Netherlands and it serves me with local relevant results which seem to be all in the United States except for London. Despite all the effort Google puts in providing cool geolocation APIs for developers and even determining your own location on a map, they didn’t think of using this same feature to improve their Google suggest feature? Why do you think Google made this decision? Do you think they will implement this in the future?

Post from: Local Search - martijnbeijk.com

Google suggest fails on Google philosophy

Location-based services are hot. Now hotter than before. Because Google just launched their Geolocation API.
This is what you can call the pre-web3.0 era. Small startups trying to provide even the smallest semantic web like services online. Providing location-based services, opening up their programming code, Developing APIs for the developers to use and create even greater software by mashing up code of several services.
Now with Google opening up their geolocation API it opens new possibilities. Apparently they’ve gathered quite some data by now from CellIDs and GPS devices to have a database that is consistent enough to provide these kind of services. They also state that they will provide more services in the near future based on WiFi access.

What does this mean in general for software or services we are going to see?
Well imagine opening up your browser or software application on your mobile phone or laptop and do a search for restaurants. No need to fill in where you are, the software will determine this using the geolocation API.
Most phones nowadays are able to determine the Cell ID, the ‘zone’ you are in with your mobile phone. No GPS needed. Although it’s not as accurate of course. It should do the trick while looking for a restaurant or any nearby service.

Now let’s combine this, do a mashup and make it all context-aware; context-awareness is a topic I’ve been working on during my internship at the Netherlands institute for applied scientific research.

You are hungry, it’s around 7pm, all your appointments for this business trip are done it’s just that entry in your calendar left with some old friends of yours.
Your mobile or wearable device with a nifty piece of software is aware of all this, it has a built in calendar, it has a contact list, it is able to determine location. it knows your appointment says ‘diner’, yet location is undecided.
Context-aware applications are able to provide you with direct access to the best restaurants in your vicinity based on your preferences (profile) and that of your friends. Let them know right away, by either calling them (their contact info is presented to you right away, because it is aware!) or use intention broadcasting (a new kind of description introduced to me at mobile 2.0 europe by startup Zipipop )

This is the future!

Got interested? You can find the exact specifications of the geolocation API here.

If you are not familiar with the semantic web, a good start is to check Wikipedia, and especially this ReadWriteWeb article here. For context awareness start with Wikipedia.

Post from: Local Search - martijnbeijk.com

Location-based services now hotter than hot?

First off all, in the ‘link’ feature, to send people links of google maps, they should provide you with some sort of tinyURL that is descriptive. Everywhere you see Google asking you to be clear as possible, using good structured URL formats, etc, and they just provide you with a URL that contains at least a couple of & parameters, fuzzying coordinates, etc. I read this idea also somewhere in the Google groups.

Second, I have to agree with Matt McGee and Mike B. that if Google would like to promote the use of Geositemaps, KML, and more stuff that common people or small business owners don’t understand they should think of better ways on how to do this.
For example, in the Local Business Center they could provide an export function of your current business listings, (approved, flagged, filter if necessary!) to KML! with automatic geo-encoding, maybe 1 or 2 images to embed in the KML or which further details per listing from the feed and information that is already there! And why not provide your KML in the webmaster central without using a sitemap?

Third,
everything that is still listed here; my previous post about updates I would like to see in the LBC or Google Maps.

Please share your thoughts or name a few things of what you think Google should do to improve Google Maps or make it more successful for business owners!

Post from: Local Search - martijnbeijk.com

What should Google do?

I might be wrong on this one, but I just was presented with the following when entering the Local Business Center. I have never seen this message before (maybe because I’m normally using european google engines )

The Local Business Center is asking me to provide my email preferences as you can see in the screenshot (click to enlarge).

It seems that now you are able to receive notifications when things are changing to listings in your account. That would be great! I look forward to the first emails!

Post from: Local Search - martijnbeijk.com

Email preferences Local Business Center

Today, I would like to briefly share the philosophies behind Google ranking:

1) Best locally relevant results served globally.
2) Keep it simple.
3) No manual intervention.The first one is obvious. Given our passion for search, we absolutely want to make sure that every user query gets the most relevant results.

Other news: latest hitwise reports show an increase of Google Maps usage, it’s now little over 2 percent of all Google properties. 2 % might seem little, but it’s a whole lot of people.

Post from: Local Search - martijnbeijk.com

Why Local Search matters

Thanks for this feedback. We didn’t think that the “edit incorrect marker
location” might still be necessary after verification, but you’ve given us
some clear evidence that it is. We’ll be adding this capability back in.

Now that solves some of the issues, but not all, hopefully they’ve read this post about updates on the local business center!

Post from: Local Search - martijnbeijk.com

Google confirms problems LBC and listens!

We see highlights of the most important ranking factors, and also those that might harm your rankings. Must read for small businesses and anyone doing local optimization.

Although this article is quite focussed on the US market it still is extremely useful here in Europe. Most of the factors discussed apply here as well. Too bad Google Maps and Yahoo Local isn’t as developed here as we would like it to be.

Post from: Local Search - martijnbeijk.com

Local Search Ranking factors discussed