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100 items tagged "Maps"

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Google Places Updates PO Box Policy

Fetched: May 24th, 2012, 2:55pm CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google Maps

Vanessa from Google announced a new PO Box policy in the Google Places Help forums.

The new policy forbids you to place your PO Box information in both the address 1 or 2 fields. Previously, if you had a PO Box, Google recommended you put it in the address 2 field - that is no longer the case.

Vanessa explained:

As it stands today, we allow users to list their P.O. Box in Address Line 2. This sends your listing for manual review to our teams (thatâs why you might see your listingâs status as âPendingâ), who then verify the accuracy of Address Line 1.
Because Google Maps listings should be reflective of a businessâs physical location, and mail receiving locations donât fit this description, weâve made a change to this policy. P.O. Boxes are no longer permitted in either Address Line 1 or 2.
Now, we know many businesses can only receive the verification postcard at a P.O. Box. If you are one of those businesses, or if you have a P.O. Box in the address field for an already verified listing, please see these next steps:

So what do you do, it depends on your situation. Here they are:

(A) Have a verified listing containing a P.O. Box?

Make sure your listing remains active:
1) Sign in at places.google.com
2) Select âEditâ
3) Remove the term âP.O. Boxâ from the address fields
4) Save your changes

If this change requires reverification, and you canât verify using the available options, please visit this contact form and select the following options:

Select: I tried PIN verification for a single listing â' Yes, the listing already appears owner-verified

B) Are you setting up a brand new Places listing?

Try creating and verifying the listing using your physical location. If you donât meet customers at your address, make sure you hide your business location. Places may give you the option to verify by phone.

If you cannot verify using the available options, youâll need to request a manual verification using this troubleshooter path: Select: I tried PIN verification for a single listing â' No, I am attempting to verify my listing --> The status is not Needs Action --> Postcard --> Yes

Once you submit a request via the contact form, please give the Google Places support team up to a week to get back in touch with you via e-mail.

Note: Users with a âP.O. Boxâ in Address Line 1 or 2 should have received an e-mail by now explaining this policy change and next steps (via the e-mail associated with your Places account).

Forum discussion at Google Places Help.

Image credit to ShutterStock for PO box

Moving? Google Wants You To Close Your Business!

Fetched: May 22nd, 2012, 12:18am CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google Maps

I am moving my company in about a month and a half about 5 minutes down the road to a larger space. It is going to be a pain to move but we have no choice, we need a bigger space and the time has come.

About a month ago we covered how Google will be introducing a We've Moved status on businesses that move locations. But when is that coming? Who knows.

Right now, Google is suggesting that if you move your business, you should mark the business as closed and open a brand new business.

Now that I am in the position of having to move, to mark my business as closed - a business that has been around since 1994 and at this one location for over ten years - is a major blow to me. We are not closed, we are just moving a few minutes down the road.

We will have the same phone number, the same web address, the same staff and the same business - we are just changing the office location.

The Google Places Help thread has Google's Vanessa (who is the most active Google rep in any forums) giving me the following advice on what I should do when I move:

If you mark the old listing closed, and create a new one, I can't say your reviews will definitely move to the new listing (I can't make guarantees with Places). You could try just editing the address on the old listing, if you're concerned about the reviews, but you might run in to address issues.

I am sure some of you have been in this position, either for yourself or for clients. What do you recommend?

Forum discussion at Google Places Help.

Image credit to ShutterStock for moving truck

Guggenheim Museum's Phone Number Wrong On Google

Fetched: May 18th, 2012, 11:47pm CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google Maps

The famous and prestigious Guggenheim Museum in New York City is having problems with Google. Despite several weeks of trying to update their phone number in Google Maps, the phone number listed is still incorrect.

The number Google should list is either the one given to them by the owner verified listing or the one listed on their contact us page?

The Guggenheim posted a complaint about this over two weeks ago in the Google Places Help forum and a Google representative named Vanessa did respond a couple times but the issue is still there.

The Guggenheim is frustrated saying:

As you can see, it's already been several months since our original request was submitted, far beyond the 4-6 period you specify. Multiple tickets were submitted to Google Places and auto-response e-mails were received indicating that action would be taken soon, however our listing has remained incorrect. We would really appreciate your help to expedite our request if at all possible.

Forum discussion at Google Places Help.

Google Maps Now With Home & Work Saved Locations

Fetched: May 17th, 2012, 12:46pm CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google Maps

One of my pet peeves with Google Maps is that it doesn't remember my home or office location, even though I am signed in. So I have to type it out each time I want to check directions or time of travel with traffic.

Google announced, prematurely - since it is not available yet, that you can now quickly save your home and work locations and quickly search on them by typing "home" or "work" into the directions box in Google Maps.

The feature is not live yet, although it should be soon. Here are screen shots of how it will look:

Save The Location Once:

It Remembers and Autocompletes:

Special Icon On Maps:

Small things like this can be huge time savers.

Forum discussion at Google+.

Vanessa From Google Places Offers Weekly Video Recaps

Fetched: May 17th, 2012, 12:46pm CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google Maps

Exciting news for you local SEO nuts out there that love watching videos - Google's Google Places community manager. Vanessa Schneider is now producing weekly videos recapping the most exciting topics in the Google Places Help forum.

She posted the first video in Google Places Help and said:

Each week I'm going to try to put together a little forum wrap-up. Just to hit some of the forum highlights - discussions, launches, fixes, etc.

Here is the first video:

Here are my notes on her video:

Launches:

New Interface For Bulk Upload Feature
New Offers Interface in Places Dashbaord

Technical Fixes:

We Do Not Support This Location Fix
Upload Photos Option To Upload Via URL is Fixed
Couple Other Bugs Should Be Fixed

Best Practices:

Put Suite Number In Address Line Two

Interesting Threads:

Reports Videos Not Showing Still A Bit Up In Air
Instructions On How To Unsubscribe From Threads in Forums

So now if you are sick of watching my weekly search video recaps - you now have a much prettier option.

Forum discussion at Google Places Help.

Google Places Bug: Videos Go Missing

Fetched: May 15th, 2012, 2:41am CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google Maps

Yet another Google Maps bug to report but to be fair, they might all be related - this one is of the videos not showing on Google Maps/Places landing pages for businesses.

A Google Places Help thread has confirmed reports from Google on the bug. Vanessa from Google Maps team said:

Thanks, guys! So this might be related to the bug from last week â" we're pushing out a more permanent fix for that one Thursday/Friday. I'd like to check back in end of day Friday to see if these videos are back up. (So don't touch anything in your account, just sit tight.) And then if that doesn't work, I'm gonna do an edit > submit on some of your listings, Susan, and Linda if you have some examples, see if the videos come back by Monday. And from there I'll check back in on next steps.

As far as I can tell by scanning some examples and the forum thread, the bug is still not fully fixed.

I think Google is working really hard on the underlining bugs with Google Maps/Places and when they do their new release (who knows when), I am hopefully the number of bugs will drop drastically.

Forum discussion at Google Places Help.

Google Offers & Indoor Maps Come To Android

Fetched: May 11th, 2012, 1:06am CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google Maps

Google has updated the Google Maps for Android app to include local Google Offers and indoor maps.

So now when you are out and about, you can quickly scan to see if there are any excellent offers available near you via Google Offers. You can scan them by location, on a map and use the offers now or later.

Here is a picture:

Plus, Google has brought the indoor version of Google Maps to your phone in the latest Android release. This can come in handy for many shoppers.

Here is a video demo on the new 6.7 version of the app:

Forum discussion at Google Maps Help.

New: Google Maps Bulk Listing Management Tool

Fetched: May 10th, 2012, 2:40pm CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google Maps

Google has announced a new way to manage bulk listings via Google Places.

The new features include:

Edit one or more of your listings' data at once
Search through your listings, filtering by specific information or for listings with errors
Upload new listings using a data file or by adding them individually within the interface
Tell us how we can improve this new interface by clicking the "Give Feedback" link

Here are some video demos:

Forum discussion at Google Places Help.

Google: There Are "Many Issues" With Maps Owner Responses

Fetched: May 4th, 2012, 3:14pm CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google Maps

The bugs in Google Maps and Google Places seem to always be endless, but yea - a Google engineer or more are always working on fixing the issues.

Specifically with "owner replies", we've had an issue where owners were unable to reply at least a few times. That being said, it is an issue again.

Google's Maps representative, Vanessa said it is not just an issue, there are "many issues" with it.

She said in a Google Places Help thread:

There are many issues with owner responses right now, the engineers are working on it.

These engineers are always so busy on Google Maps related issues - must be exciting.

Forum discussion at Google Places Help.

Fix Coming For Google "We Currently Do Not Support The Location"

Fetched: May 4th, 2012, 3:14pm CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google Maps

Vanessa from Google started a thread at Google Places Help saying Google is working on a fix for the "We do not support this location" bug within Google Maps/Places.

This is not an new issue, like many Google Maps issues. We reported this issue about a month ago. Google said then it would take a week to fix.

Vanessa started a new thread to let people know Google is aware of the issue and is working on it. She said:

A bunch of you have reported seeing "We currently do not support this location" on your listing. We're working on a fix right now and will keep you posted on progress.

Forum discussion at Google Places Help.

Google Requesting Business Licenses For Maps Verification

Fetched: April 28th, 2012, 12:57pm CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google Maps

A Google Places Help thread has confirmation from Google that Google may request to see your business license as verification to post your listing in Google Maps.

A person who places a request to be listed in Google Places asked:

I received an email from local-help@google.com. They are requesting a scanned copy of my business license. They sent the request to my business email and not to the email I used to create my listing. I just want to know if this is a legitimate request and not some scam.

Google representative, Vanessa, responded that this request is indeed from Google. Vanessa said, "Just to confirm: Yes, that request is from the Google Places support team. "

This is the first case I have seen Google request business documentation for verification in the Google Places directory.

Is this Google going overboard or just a situation where Google has no other way to verify this business?

Forum discussion at Google Places Help.

Israel Gets Google Maps Street Views

Fetched: April 20th, 2012, 2:55pm CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google Maps

Matt McGee noticed that Google Maps has added Street Views to Israel after a long long wait and a lot of controversy.

Israel is very big into security, so having street views was/is a concern for them. But the tourism benefit, outweighs the potential security risks.

I go to Israel once a year to run SMX Israel and to visit family. I also spent a school year there. So scanning through the Street View images brings things back for me.

Everyone knows the Western Wall:

View Larger Map

Here is a picture of Geula, one of the most religious sections of Jerusalem. This should be recognized by anyone who visited Israel:

View Larger Map

I spent part of my school year in a school on this street, no - not the Brisk Yeshiva.

View Larger Map

Here is Google's Tel Aviv office:

View Larger Map

Pretty cool!

Forum discussion at Google Maps Help.

Google Maps To Add "We've Moved" Message

Fetched: April 20th, 2012, 4:08am CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google Maps

Vanessa from the Google Maps team said on Google Places Help that they will likely bring a new message status to business information for businesses that move a lot.

Alex, a business owner, asked in the forums:

I work with small and medium sized law firms and the way the industry goes, firms tend to move offices quite a bit.
I generally use "this office is closed" option, however, I receive complaints that the yellow highlighting and wording "closed" can confuse potential clients, thus leading them to another firm or listing. As everyone knows a new potential client could always be a big sale and no one wants to lose on a big sell.
Would Vanessa or another Google employee be able to raise a feature request for "this office has moved" option or something similar?

Vanessa responded saying they are working on it. She said:

Yep, we're working on better messaging for these kinds of cases. Stay tuned!

Forum discussion at Google Places Help.

Google Places Bug Limits Search Results To 10

Fetched: April 19th, 2012, 9:24am CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google Maps

Google Places has an unusual bug, where they are only showing up to ten results for a local search query without the option to go to page 2 for an additional 10 results.

For example, search for [plumbers] and then click on the more results near... option. If you scroll to the bottom of those results you will be missing the famous Google pagination.

Here is a screen shot, feel free to click on it to see a full size:

Google Maps representative, Vanessa, said "Thanks, guys -- I've alerted the team and we're taking a look." The issue has yet to be resolved but it has been less than 24 hours as of right now.

Forum discussion at Google Places Help.

Video: Google Places Team & Experts Answer Questions On Google Maps

Fetched: April 11th, 2012, 12:03pm CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google Maps

Google has announced in the Google Places Help forums a new video they posted using Google+ Help Desk Hangout On Air to answer questions about Google Maps and Google Places.

Here is the outline followed by the video:

0:45 - What is Google Places for business?
1:31 - How a user sees business information on Google
9:22 - Adding your business information
13: 35 - How any user can help us keep places information up to date
17:58 - Top Contributor Jack joins the Hangout! (Some tech issues here.)
22:46 - Joel and Jack answer your questions for the rest of the hour, including: ranking in search results; marking a business as closed; 'at a glance' terms; best practices for descriptions and service area businesses; and more!

It is a bit shaky at start but ends well.

Forum discussion at Google Places Help.

Google: Towing Companies Are In Spammy Vertical

Fetched: April 11th, 2012, 12:03pm CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google Maps

There are certain industries and sectors that seem 'shadier' than others. When it comes to Google Maps and getting businesses listed in Google Maps/Places, certain industries take more aggressive approaches to ranking for certain queries.

Google's Vanessa said in a Google Places Help thread that the towing company industry is one of those verticals. She wanted to make sure that if you are in that vertical, you should know that. She said:

So I looked in to this a bit more. You definitely have a lot of editing history with the phone calls. Towing companies are a spammy vertical, so when an operator calls you on the phone to confirm the information, always be clear about old address, new address, give helpful information, don't be dodgy about it (I'm not saying you weren't helpful, I'm just saying this generally for anyone else who finds this thread and is in the same situation).

See that, don't be dodgy if you in are dodgy vertical!

Forum discussion at Google Places Help.

Google Maps Traffic By Day/Time For Roads

Fetched: April 4th, 2012, 1:55pm CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google Maps

Google has just added the ability to see traffic estimates by day and time for not just highways but also for many roads.

Google announced this on the Google Maps blog saying:

Starting today, if youâre planning a trip for which you anticipate traffic, you can find out what typical traffic is like on these arterial roads, rather than just on highways. Simply type in your starting and ending points to get directions in Google Maps, enable the traffic layer on the upper right hand side of the viewport, and then click âchangeâ in the legend to switch from live traffic to Typical Traffic for these roads.

Here is a picture of a high traffic road in my area at certain times of the day and week:

The Google Maps team said on their Google+ page:

You can now get typical traffic for major roads as well as highways. This allows you to see what traffic will be like on different times and days of the week so you can properly plan ahead.

Pretty useful and glad this is back.

Google just also brought back live traffic data to Google Maps.

Forum discussion at Google+.

Google Retired Geo Sitemap Support

Fetched: April 1st, 2012, 7:51am CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google Maps

We reported this about a week ago but it seems to have gone unnoticed. Google has officially retired support for Geo Sitemaps.

Google's Susan Moskwa said this a week ago:

Google has retired support for the Geo Sitemaps format. You can continue to submit your Geo content to us using the standard Sitemaps format (just listing the URL of the file(s), without -specific tags).

This explains why the geo sitemap XML files were returning errors in Google Webmaster Tools in February. The invalid tag is invalid because Google quietly stopped supporting them.

A Google Places Help thread has Vanessa from Google a bit confused as to why or when this happened but it did.

Google still does support the KML Files format, which you can learn about over here but not the geo sitemap format.

Forum discussion at Google Places Help.

Google Maps For Android Gets A Nice Update

Fetched: April 1st, 2012, 7:51am CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google Maps

Google has made some big changes to the Google Maps for Android app.

The changes include:

New homescreen design for Google Maps Navigation (Beta)
Improved map rendering quality for ICS devices
Options to get transit directions for preferred transit mode

Google has updated the videos for how to use Google Maps for Android on their YouTube channel. Here are some:

Forum discussion at Google Maps Help.

Traffic Data Now Back In Google Maps

Fetched: April 1st, 2012, 7:51am CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google Maps

Google has officially brought back the traffic data to Google Maps driving and transit directions.

Back in July 2011, Google quietly removed traffic data from the web based version of Google Maps. Keeping traffic data only in the mobile version. Google told us then they removed it because the traffic predictions "were not as good as they could be."

Now they are, Google said they use "both live and historic traffic data" to show traffic estimates in driving directions. Here is a picture of what I see now:

The original traffic data looked like this:

When they removed it in July, it looked empty like this:

Google told me how they source this data at Search Engine Land:

The previous traffic feature that was removed from Google Maps last summer provided users with the worst case traffic scenario based on historic traffic data â" e.g. âup to 50 minutes in traffic.â That feature was removed because we wanted to improve the freshness of the data. The feature that weâre introducing on Google Maps today works differently and serves a different purpose. The new time-in-traffic feature provides users with the ability to check current traffic conditions and estimates the length of travel time based on constantly refreshed data.
The traffic information comes from a combination of data from third party sources and information that Android users have chosen to share by opting in to the My Location feature on Google Maps. While iPhone users donât currently contribute to crowdsourced traffic data, we do provide the traffic data to both Android and iPhone map application users so they can benefit from the useful traffic information.

Yes, Google does crowdsource traffic data from Android phones plus they use third-party databases.

Forum discussion at Google Maps Help.

Post To Your Google Place Page Not Working

Fetched: March 16th, 2012, 11:22pm CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google Maps

For at least the past week, the post to your place page feature within Google Places has not worked. In fact, there are a lot of things not working with Google Places.

We know Google is working hard to revamp Google Places, it seems like from the ground up. So I guess we need to just be patient and wait it out.

This feature was also not working in November.

Googler Vanessa did tell us a week ago that, "**The Post to your Place page feature should update to your listing near instantly, but we're experiencing some technical issues with that right now. Expect a fix very soon." How soon is "very soon" - well, at least not a week soon.

Forum discussion at Google Places Help.

Google Says How Long It Takes For Updates To Places/Maps Listings

Fetched: March 9th, 2012, 2:15am CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google Maps

Vanessa fron the Google Maps / Places team has documented the typical turnaround time for the various types of Google Maps updates. As Nyagoslav Zhekov pointed out below, it is important for me to stress that these are the typical turn around times for now - it may change in the future, probably will as Google upgrades their systems right now.

The same questions come up over and over again in the forums, so Vanessa decided to post the ETA for the most common updates.

Here they are:

Updates In Days:

Newly verified listings (even though it reads âActiveâ in your dashboard)
Business titles
Addresses
Phone numbers
Website URLs
Pin marker moves
Descriptions
Hours
Categories

Updates In A Week:

Photos
Videos

Updates In Several Weeks:

Duplicate listings

For more details and if you have questions, please check out the forums.

Forum discussion at Google Places Help.

Google Maps Lists Wrong Phone Number For Busy NYC Hospital

Fetched: March 2nd, 2012, 2:42am CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google Maps

Mount Sinai Hospital is an extremely busy hospital located near Central Park in New York City. The problem is, when you Google it, Google Maps is listing the wrong phone number.

Google is listing (212) 241-7475 instead of (212) 241-6500. The 7475 number goes to a specific office within the hospital, the 6500 number goes to the main switch board which is capable of handling the volume of calls necessary for a hospital of that size.

In individual responsible for the listing said this is a huge concern because "there are hundred of calls going to the wrong department."

Google's Vanessa said they are working on it as of yesterday, but as of this morning the issue is still there. Vanessa said:

The team's working to fix this, please just don't touch anything right now (in MM, etc.).

Normally these are not huge concerns but when it comes to emergency care and alerts, it makes a huge difference.

This is not the first time Google ran into an issue with sending people to the wrong hospital and I bet it won't be the last.

Forum discussion at Google Places Help.

Google & Bing Block Out 66 16 0 N 179 15 0 E On Google Maps, Why?

Fetched: February 27th, 2012, 4:32am CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google Maps

Go to 66 16 0 N 179 15 0 E on Google Maps or Bing Maps and you will see a blurred out area. No one knows exactly why that area in Russia is blurred out. It is one of the few blurred out areas on Google Maps.

A Google Maps user asked why on the Google Maps Help forum, but I doubt we will see a reply.

There is some discussion on this at Unexplained Mysteries Forum but no one knows the full truth. Maybe it is a military base, maybe aliens live there, or maybe it is the RustyBrick headquarters (okay not).

It is interesting to see this, since street views came to Russia this week.

The user asked:

I have been wondering about this for a long time. On ALL of the map sites, this area in Russia is photoshopped or blurred: 66 16 0 N 179 15 0 E. Nobody seems to have any answers and I am going nuts wondering what is being hidden from us all. Can anyone tell me what the significance of this area is and why we aren't allowed to see it?

Anyone know?

Forum discussion at Google Maps Help.

Google Places Bug: We Currently Do Not Support The Location

Fetched: February 17th, 2012, 12:25pm CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google Maps

The Google Places Help forum is filled with complaints about a bug with Google showing the error "We currently do not support this location."

The first complaint came in yesterday and read:

Our place page has disappeared. We just see the "we currently do not support this location." We had reviews and links on our website to this place page map, now its all jacked up.
I can see the listing that I created and verified years ago in my google places account and it still says "active" but you cant even search on the physical address of our location in google maps.

There are close to a hundred complaints and it seems Google has fixed it early this morning. Joel H from Google wrote:

We've just finished making some changes to restore listings. Sorry for the issue and thanks all for your patience.

The issue still seems to be happening for people, one person wrote about 6 hours after Joel said it was fixed:

Issue is that Google gives the message, that the location isn't found. When searching for the company name, it is indeed not found, unless you look on Maps while logged into the Google account. Can you fix this, Google please.

This is not an uncommon issue, it has happened before.

Forum discussion at Google Places Help and Google Maps Help.

Google Maps Street View Images Now With Dates

Fetched: February 15th, 2012, 4:07pm CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google Maps

I am not sure how new this is, but sometime within the year, Google Maps has begun showing the date the image was taken. Not the exact date but the month and year the image was taken with the street view cars.

For example, here is a street view image of Gramercy Park in New York City, at the bottom left hand corner is the copyright, source of the image and the date it was taken:

So it doesn't give you the exact day and time but it does give you the month and year.

Previously, the only way to see when a street view image was taken was via Google Earth. We wrote about that in November 2010.

Again, I am not sure when Google added dates to the web version of Google Maps Street View images but it is interesting to see there.

Daniel from the Google Maps team wrote in the Google Maps Help forum that you can retrieve the dates of the image on the "bottom left corner of the Street View image."

Forum discussion at Google Maps Help.

Update: Websonic told me the dates were added a couple months ago.

Bug? Google Maps Drops Owner Uploaded Photos

Fetched: February 11th, 2012, 2:00am CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google Maps

This is pretty scary, if you go to your Google Maps business listing, any photos you may have uploaded seem to have been completely removed! This even happened on my business listing where I had a ton of photos uploaded by yours truly and they are all gone.

Here is the backend where it shows I have zero photos uploaded:

Here is a picture only showing pictures from the web and not pictures I've uploaded:

Vanessa from the Google Maps team said they are looking into the bug. She said:

We're investigating to see if there's a bug going on. Keep posting your examples -- links to Place pages are most helpful.

To submit your issue, go to the Google Places Help forum and give Vanessa your URL.

Forum discussion at Google Places Help.

National Rail Lines Now On Google Transit UK

Fetched: February 8th, 2012, 8:25am CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google Maps

The Google Maps team has added National train routes to the UK Google Transit options.

They include 2,500 stations, 8,000 bus stops and 250 London Underground routes.

Google partnered with Trainline in order to make 170 000 routes accessible from the Maps base.

This should make it easier to travel across England and is available on Google Maps for England, Scotland and Wales.

Googler, Daniel Mabasa, wants feedback - suggestions, bugs, etc for the new feature at the Google Maps Help forum.

So check it out and give some feedback.

Forum discussion at Google Maps Help.

Pay To Get Business Photos In Google Places With Trusted Photographers

Fetched: January 28th, 2012, 10:29am CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google Maps

Back in May, Google launched Google Business Photos to help businesses make their Google Places listings more attractive by showing off the inside of your stores.

Google said their has been such high demand that they have decided to open up a new program to let any business participate at a fee.

Google now lists trusted photographers in many locations around America where you can call them and schedule an appointment. But you have to pay the photographers and negotiate the price with them. These are not Googlers, they are third party photographers that Google "trusts."

Several photographers want to know how they can get on the list of trusted photographers. The way to do that is to fill out this form and wait.

Google added:

This self-serve model makes for easier scheduling and quicker turnaround, while also supporting the local photographers in your community. During the hour it should take for the shoot, you can collaborate with the photographer about how best to display and capture your business. When finished, the photographer will upload the images to Google, and shortly thereafter, youâll see 360-degree panoramic views of your business on Google.com, Google Maps and on your Google Places listing.

Google Maps Public Alerts

Fetched: January 28th, 2012, 10:29am CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google Maps

Google announced a new feature for Google Maps where they overlay public alerts on the map.

So now if there are public alerts, such as weather issues and other issues, Google will overlay them on the map. In addition, you can go to google.org/publicalerts to see any public alert happening now.

Here are some pictures:

Then if you zoom in and mouse over an alert, this is what it looks like:

Clicking on the result will take you to a more detailed page, here is the awesome snow storm hitting Vermont.

The data comes from US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the National Weather Service, and the US Geological Survey (USGS).

Carolyn a Google Guide for Google.Org, said at the Google Maps Forum:

I'd like to give you a heads up about a new addition to Google maps called Google Public Alerts. Google Public Alerts is Googleâs platform for disseminating emergency messages such as evacuation notices for hurricanes, and also everyday alerts such as storm warnings. It is a project of the Google Crisis Response team, supported by Google.org. On Google Maps, alerts will appear at the top of relevant search results and can be identified with a red target icon. Google Crisis Response has also set up the Google Public Alerts page where you can view all current alert information on a map. We hope Google Public Alerts provides the public with information they need to make better decisions in times of crisis, and ultimately help save lives.
Please keep your eye out for Google Public Alerts on Google Maps. We would love to hear your feedback on relevancy and accuracy of the alerts we are displaying, as well as any other feedback you may have. You can provide direct feedback on Google Public Alerts via the feedback link on the Public Alerts homepage and on every alert details page.
If you would like to learn more about Google Public Alerts please visit the FAQ and helpcenter or read the Lat Long Blog Post.

Forum discussion at Google Maps Forum.

Google Maps Reviews Help Guide

Fetched: January 24th, 2012, 11:44pm CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google Maps

One of the more popular questions found in the Google Places Help forum is of reviews going missing from the Google Map business listing. I see complaints all the time.

Vanessa from Google went ahead and built out a single post containing a bunch of the FAQs regarding reviews in Google Maps listings. The post can be found on Google Places Help and answers questions on technical issues with the reviews on your listing.

Here is it just in case it changes in the future:

Where did my reviews go?
You may have seen reviews suddenly disappear from your listing. A few reasons why that may be the case: - Reviews from third-party websites are no longer displayed on Google Places listings. Below the reviews by Google users, we may link "Reviews around the web" on third-party sites.
- Reviews are removed from Google Maps because they exhibit spammy behavior. We can't share specifics about what signals we use, but our goal is to provide end-users with high-quality information they can trust and use that info to make informed decisions. We also remove reviews that violate our content policy guidelines. We know that sometimes our algorithms may flag and remove legitimate reviews in our effort to combat abuse, but believe that overall, these measures are helping to ensure that the reviews appearing on Place pages are authentic, relevant and useful. Here's our reviews posting guidelines and policy: [goo.gl]
- We have data spread across multiple databases, and we bring all that information together to create your local listing. Reviews can sometimes be dropped from Place pages when we're trying to reconcile all that information. As we mentioned at the beginning of this note: This is a known issue, and we are working to make it better.
Occasionally, there is a technical issue that causes Place page reviews to drop from Google Maps for a short period of time (a few days) and then reappear on your listing. This happens every several weeks, when we push out a giant housecleaning update to our listings database. Again, this is a known issue, and we are working to make it better.
How do I know which of the above reasons is affecting my listing?
There's not much you can do to troubleshoot this â" it requires a deeper dive into our system's backend.
How do I get them back on my listing?
There's no way currently to quickly, easily and absolutely get your reviews back on to your listing. If we dropped them during a reconciliation process, you'll see them reappear after a few days. Other than that, there's not much our support team can to do to ensure they get reinstated. Fixing this is a priority for us, and we're working on long-term solutions to resolve most of these cases.
Where are my owner responses?
This has been a hot topic in the forum lately. Here's the deal: Google Places allows multiple people to own a listing. So you may have claimed your account, but someone else may have claimed it before you and is still considered an "owner" of the listing. The last person to have updated the listing is considered the main owner, and only responses from that account will appear live on the listing (so, if the other owner updates the account after you had left your response, your responses will be removed from the listing). Here's something you can do to make sure you're the most recent owner: Go into your Places account, click to Edit your listing, don't touch anything, and hit "Submit." That should ping our system, to let us know you're the most recent owner. Now try again to leave a response. If you're still not seeing the option to write a response, start a new thread here in the forum, and provide us the link to your Places listing.
Why are the reviews on my listing not related to my business?
Reviews can sometimes get reassociated to another, similarly related listing. If you're seeing reviews on your listing that are not related to your business, please use our Help Center troubleshooter to get in touch with our team, and we'll work on getting it removed. Here's a link to the troubleshooter:
[support.google.com]Select: I have verified > Yes > Reviews > My page features false or inappropriate reviews > Fill out the form, hit Submit, and await an e-mail response from our team.
One of the links in "Reviews from around the web" is wrong â" it's going to a page of reviews about an unrelated business. How do I get rid of it?
Those links are generated algorithmically, and sometimes we get it wrong. If you see an incorrect link, please use our Help Center troubleshooter to get in touch with our team, and we'll work on getting it removed (note: it takes several weeks to fix). Here's a link to the troubleshooter:
[support.google.com]Select: I have verified > Yes > Reviews > My page features false or inappropriate reviews > Fill out the form, hit Submit, and await an e-mail response from our team.
Why can't my customer leave a review?
Say your customer tells you that they've gone to your listing, but were unable to submit a review. It's very difficult for us to troubleshoot and investigate secondhand reports. Ask them if they've created an account to review on Google (they should get a prompt when they go to leave the review, and they should be logged in to their own Google account before selecting a reviews nickname). Ask them to try posting a response in a different browser. Ask them to wait a few minutes and try again.
How can I report spammy reviews?
Use the "Report as inappropriate" button next to the review to tell us you think it's spam, and we'll look into it. If you're seeing a large network of spam, too many for you to individually mark each one, start a new thread in the forum. We're looking out for those reports and investigating.
I've reported a review on my listing, but it's still there. Why won't you remove it?
Note that we very rarely remove reviews. You can read our removal guidelines here:
[support.google.com]
But none of these questions address the issue I'm experiencing?
The information above addresses almost all the issues you can experience with reviews on your listing. But we know that sometimes, new bugs can crop up. So if none of the information above applies to you, start a new thread in the Places forum and we'll investigate.

Forum discussion at Google Places Help.

Google Latitude For Desktop Updated

Fetched: January 20th, 2012, 7:40pm CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google Maps

I rarely ever use Google Latitude, although I do use Foursquare, so when Google announces new changes to Google Latitude, I am not always a 100% sure what is new and what is not.

Daniel from Google announced this in the Google Maps Forum the other day, saying Google Latitude users have a new home on their desktop at google.com/latitude. He said the new features include:

Check out the new way to access your friends list, personal location history, and more.
Manually update your location from a computer by pressing 'Update' next to your name
In Location History, playback your location history from a select range of dates by pressing the play button on the bottom left hand corner of the map

Here are screen shots:

Forum discussion at Google Maps Forum.

Google Places Mobile Hides Owner Review Responses

Fetched: January 11th, 2012, 3:20pm CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google Maps

A new Google Maps / Google Places bug was reported at Google Places Help the other day.

It appears that owner responses to reviews on Google Maps show up fine for desktop users but not for iPhone, Android or smartphone users.

Here is a screen shot of this maps listing which clearly has a owner response to a review on the desktop version but it is completely missing from the mobile template version.

Vanessa from Google responded to the issue in the Google Places Help forum saying it is a bug and they will work on it. She said:

Hmmm interesting! I've sent this along to my team, looks like a bug.
Thanks for reporting this.

Forum discussion at Google Places Help.

Catalan Language Bug With Google Maps

Fetched: December 28th, 2011, 9:05pm CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google Maps

A Google Maps Help thread has confirmed reports of a bug with Google Maps label in the Catalan language.

Daniel from the Google Maps team confirmed the issue 11 days ago saying:

We've gotten a number of posts about the Catalan labels appearing in the wrong language on Google Maps. There's a technical issue on our endâ" we're working on a fix.

Google has fixed some of the issues but there are still many reports of ongoing issues with those labels.

Catalan is a Romance language officially spoken in Andorra. It is also a co-official language in Catalonia, the Balearic Islands and Valencian Community, where it is known as Valencian, as well as in the city of Alghero, on the Italian island of Sardinia.

There is no ETA for a complete fix.

Forum discussion at Google Maps Help.

Image credit via ShutterStock for Catalonian flag.

Google Places Analytics Bug

Fetched: December 24th, 2011, 7:52am CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google Maps

There are several complaints in the Google Places Help forums from business owners that Google Places has not shown impression data for their map listings for a month now.

The bug seems to be effecting a subset of Google Places accounts.

The first report came in about a month ago.

Vanessa from Google updated us yesterday saying it will likely not be fixed until next year. She said:

We're still having some technical trouble with this. But with the holiday, we're not going to be able to get a fix out the door until early January. Thanks for being patient and reporting more examples of this here!

Do you have this issue?

Forum discussion at Google Places Help.

Google Places Bug Prevents New Images

Fetched: December 15th, 2011, 12:27am CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google Maps

There are several threads and complaints from business owners that they cannot update their photos on their Google Places page.

The central thread is at the Google Places Help forum where Google has confirmed the issue.

The issue seems to be where using the image source feature from a third party site. It simply won't add a new image that way. Here is a picture:

Another issue I see is that all my business places images I uploaded years ago seem to be gone - maybe it is part of this bug.

Google's Vanessa confirmed the issue saying:

We know you're having trouble, and we're working on it -- but in the mean time, if you're having trouble uploading your photos via the Places dashboard, use the photo upload tool via the listing itself, and manage them via your Picasa web album.

Forum discussion at Google Places Help.

Google Maps UK Powered By Google

Fetched: December 10th, 2011, 10:13am CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google Maps

Google announced they have finally switched off their third-party maps data provider in the UK and is now powering the UK maps with their own data. They've done this in the U.S. and other countries and now have made the switch in the UK.

This applies for the UK, Germany, Finland and Sweden. How do you know if it is Google Maps data and not a third party? It says so on the bottom:

Google said:

You may notice many improvements to Google Maps in these countries, such as improved water bodies and more comprehensive local park coverage. Many of these and other changes are the result of us working directly with a variety of organizations, agencies and data providers. For example, Germany's Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy (Bundesamt für Kartographie und Geodäsie) supplied us harmonized data from surveying and mapping agencies of all 16 federal states (Länder). And in the case of Finland, we acquired water body data directly from the National Land Survey. We're thankful to these and other data providers for helping us ensure that our digital maps accurately reflect real life.

Also, now when you see an issue with the map data within the UK, Germany, Finland and Sweden you should click the "report a problem" link.

Forum discussion at Google Maps Help.

Google + Comes To Google Places

Fetched: November 25th, 2011, 3:45pm CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google Maps

To really no ones surprise, Google seems to be integrating Google + on Google Places search results.

Mike Blumenthal has two different examples of this happening.

Here is one of the examples, as he describes:

On this Places Search example for Cake Box New Jersey you see a correctly integrated profile photo on all of their results from the business's Google Plus page. The image clicks thru to an intermediary search result of a recent post on their Plus Page:

Google + is showing up everywhere these days, even in commercials on Thanksgiving day. :)

Forum discussion at Search Engine Watch Forums.

Google Places Post To Page Broken

Fetched: November 25th, 2011, 3:45pm CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google Maps

There are confirmed reports in the Google Places Help forums that the Google Places post to your place page feature does not work.

In short, you can go to your place page in Google, click on impressions, and then at the top right of the page, it gives you a box to post something to your place page. If you try it, it might appear to work, but your place page won't show the post.

Google's Ashley said this is a known issue:

This is actually a known issue and we are working towards a solution. Hopefully it will be back up and running soon!

There is not ETA for a fix but I am honestly not sure how often this feature is used.

Forum discussion at Google Places Help.

Google Places In Search Results Get Facelift

Fetched: November 9th, 2011, 7:02am CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google Maps

This is about a week or so old and we covered part of the new look back then, but it seems to be finalized now.

Google Places results in the Google search results have been redesigned.

Here is the new look:

You can click on it to enlarge.

Notice the gray map pins plus all the details in the right pane, where the instant previews are.

Personally, I like it.

Mat Siltala said in his blog post, he said the "winner in all this" is Yelp. Yelp is often ranking just below the main result, the main web site. Matt said that by Yelp refusing to let Google take their reviews, they are able to rank well in the search results, above their competitors.

Forum discussion at Sphinn.

New Yorkers, Google Maps Transit Wants Your Feedback

Fetched: November 3rd, 2011, 6:41pm CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google Maps

Daniel from the Google Maps team posted a request in the Google Maps Help forum, asking for New Yorkers to give feedback on the Google Transit over there.

Daniel asked:

Hey, New Yorkers, have a minute? The Google Transit team is working on improving the quality of Google Transit in NYC, and weâd love your input. Help make a difference in our product:
* Do you use Google Transit?
* If yes, weâd love hear about your general experience with Google Transit. (Stories about how it affects your life are great too!)
* Did you experience any issues with Google Transit? If so, what were they? And were they annoying enough to stop you from using the product?
* If you donât use Google Transit, is there something else you are using to meet your transit needs?
The quality of Google Transit is a high priority for the team right now, so your feedback will be invaluable to us as we keep developing the product.

So if you live in New York and use Google Transit often, here is your chance to get some feature requests in.

Forum discussion at Google Maps Help.

Google To Bill Developers For Maps API

Fetched: November 1st, 2011, 2:48pm CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google Maps

Not totally unexpected, Google announced they will soon be charging Maps API developers for usage of the Google Maps API.

Google said now that it is October, six months after they updated their terms of service, they will start enforcing the new pricing options for the API. They noted, "no site exceeding these limits will stop working immediately."

Instead, they will soon ask you for your credit card and in "early 2012" begin charging you for usage.

Your options include:

Reduce your usage to below the limits
Opt-in to paying for your excess usage at the rates given in the FAQ
Purchase a Maps API Premier license

Many in the developer community are upset, but not all.

A WebmasterWorld thread has one saying:

Considering the amount of money Google has spent building the best maps on the planet IMO, it's about time they started charging. Paying to use Google maps, just in order to maintain the street view alone, is worth it.

Some say that Google gives away an addictive drug and then once you're hooked, they start charging you for it.

To be honest, developers can always switch to Bing.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Google Maps Grey Pins & Horizontal Maps

Fetched: October 31st, 2011, 9:44pm CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google Maps

Wissam Dandan informed me on Google + that Google is testing horizontal maps on the web search results with gray map pins. The gray map pins have been spotted before, but I have not seen horizontal maps.

Here is a picture from Wissam's video:

As you can see, the map on the right is no longer vertical orientation but horizontal (longways). And the map pins below the ads in the middle are only red when you mouse over them, they are by default gray. Both are significant changes to the maps user interface.

Here is a video:

Forum discussion on Google +.

Google Street View Cars Causing Dirty Roads

Fetched: October 26th, 2011, 10:32pm CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google Maps

A serious complaint came from a resident in Brooklyn, New York against a Google street view car that is leading to his road becoming a huge dirt pile.

The issue was reported by the upset resident in a Google Maps Help thread, claiming that the street view car doesn't obey the alternate side-of-the-street parking rules and because of the commercial plates, it is okay legally. The issue is, the street cleaners can't clean the road because of the car and thus the road gets incredibly messy and unpleasant for residents and visitors.

The resident who lives at McKinley Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11208 said:

Every night he brings his Google-Map car home. Sometimes he brings his friend home in his car, other times he comes home alone. He parks this commercial vehicle on a residential street; we have alternate side-of-the-street parking 4 days of the week and parking is a problem here without commercial vehicles and cabs taking the spots. He will not always move his car before the street cleaners come down the block - so then we don't get that side-of-the-street cleaned because of his selfishness. I can't believe that Google allows employees to take their cars home, and use them for personal use!

Google's Daniel replied saying he will have someone contact the car's operator and added:

Thanks for letting us know about this issue, we'll follow-up with our car operator. You may want to remove this post as we do not recommend sharing private information such as your address on a public web forum.

Honestly, looking at the street view images of that location, it doesn't look that messy to me.

Forum discussion at Google Maps Help.

Wessel du Plooy / Shutterstock.com.

Google Mountain Maps Causes Hiker Frustration

Fetched: October 26th, 2011, 10:32pm CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google Maps

The complaints in the Google Maps Help forum are mounting (pun intended) where hikers are complaining that their user generated hiking maps no longer work due to a bug.

The bug basically takes the directions and routes labelled by these hikers in their My Maps, and snaps them to roads. The issue is, there are no roads or very few roads on mountains. If you snap those routes to roads, then the routes make no sense and are useless to hikers.

Making these routes is incredibly time consuming for hikers and to see them all changes overnight is worrisome.

Even when you uncheck the "Snap to Roads" feature it keeps the lines and routes snapped to the roads.

Googler, Daniel, came into the thread and said they are working on fixing it. She said:

Thanks for the reports. We are aware of the issue and are working to fix it as soon as possible. Your maps are not permanently changed and they will revert back to normal. ehg is right, you should avoid opening and editing your maps in the mean time.
I'll post again when I have updates on the issue.

Forum discussion at Google Maps Help.

Image from djgis/Shutterstock.

Google Maps Center Algorithm May End You In Another Country

Fetched: October 25th, 2011, 3:08pm CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google Maps

Doc Sheldon's Clinic, a business that operates in San Diego, California, was being reported as operating in Kenya. But why?

The reason a business can show up in a country it has no reason for being in, is when you target multiple service areas around the world.

In this case, the business was listed as services the following areas: Reykjanesbaer, Iceland; Toronto, ON, Canada; Tasmania, Australia; Perth WA, Australia; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Queensland, Australia; Manchester, UK; Montreal, QC, Canada; New York, NY, USA; Houston, TX, USA.

When you plot the center point of all these locations, you get Kenya.

When you select the option to "hid your address" and list multiple service areas, this is how Google works. Joel from Google said, "We're to find the 'center' of all these service areas. It appears that Kenya is the center of your service area."

He recommended that he remove the hid address feature and things will go back to normal, and they did.

Forum discussion at Google Places Help.

Google Maps Email Notifications For Places Updates

Fetched: October 18th, 2011, 5:08am CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google Maps

Vanessa from the Google Maps team posted a thread at the Google Places Help forums informing Google Place business holders they may receive emails from Google notifying them that their listings will be updated.

Vanessa explained these email notifications are to inform you prior to when Google makes the update. Here is what Vanessa said:

Some of you may have received these very e-mails from us yesterday. Let us know if you have questions.
We use both manual and automated ways to ensure that new information being applied to your listing is accurate before it goes live. We are sending the notification e-mails in advance of pushing the edits live to your listings. Clicking edit and submit in your Places account is the best way to let us know if you disagree with the edit. If you sign in and do that at any time - either before the edit is implemented or after the changes are made - your listing will maintain or revert back to the state it's shown as in your Places account.

Here is a picture of an email I received on Friday:

So don't be worried if you received this email, this is legit.

Forum discussion at Google Places Help.

Bug: Google Maps House Numbers Go Missing

Fetched: October 13th, 2011, 3:43am CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google Maps

There are several reports in the Google Maps Help forums that all of a sudden, the house numbers listed on Google Maps are now gone. This seems to only affect some countries, not the U.S. and others but countries like Austria, Germany, New Zealand and many others.

Here is a screen shot of a maps of Germany from a few years ago with house numbers and now today, without it:

Before:

After:

Yes, Google updated the maps internationally a while ago, but the house numbers were there. Now, they are gone.

Daniel from Google replied saying:

Thanks for reporting this. We are currently working on finding the root cause of the issue. I'll be back here later in the week to report any updates.

Some Google Maps users are pretty upset, saying:

If they are gone forever, it'll change my working life profoundly, for the worse.

Yea, it is only a bug - it appears.

Forum discussion at Google Maps Help.

Bug: Embedded Maps On Internet Explorer 7

Fetched: October 10th, 2011, 4:22pm CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google Maps

There is a confirmed bug with viewing Google Maps embedded using Internet Explorer 7.

One user reported the issue in the Google Maps Help forums, sharing a screen shot of the issue. In short, when you use the standard Google Maps embed code and try to view the map on the page when using IE7, it will show a dialog menu that the map is loading.

Here is a screen shot:

Daniel from Google confirmed the bug saying:

We are currently working to resolve this issue. I'll be sure to pass this information along to the team. I'll also be sure to update you on any progress we make. Thanks again for coming to the forum to report this problem.

Forum discussion at Google Maps Help.

Google Maps On Right Side Of Web Results

Fetched: October 10th, 2011, 4:22pm CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google Maps

Google has been on and off testing maps on right side of the web results, in place of the AdWords ads. In fact, the map itself for me has been on the right side on some searches for a while.

Here is a picture of what I see right now:

Google seems to now be testing putting the map details as shown above in the lower portion of the web results, on the right hand side bar.

Wissam Dandan posted a screen shot on his Google + page of this in action:

This obviously takes away from the ad spots, but when the query is so local specific, it likely makes sense.

Forum discussion on Google +.

My Location Detection Comes To Google Maps Desktop

Fetched: October 6th, 2011, 5:03am CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google Maps

Google released a popular feature on Google Maps mobile, now for Google Maps desktop. The feature is to get driving locations from my current location.

This does not work on all browsers, it requires Firefox V3.5+, Google Chrome, Opera 10.6+, Internet Explorer 9.0+, and Safari 5. You also have to specifically allow Google to try to determine your location from your browser. But once you do that, it works pretty well.

Here is a picture:

Daniel from Google Maps team said in a Google Maps Help thread:

We recently launched the option to use "My Location" to search for directions in Google Maps. With this feature, Google Maps can approximate your current location to use as a starting or ending point for directions. You can try it out if you're using Google Maps on one of the supported browsers: Firefox V3.5+, Google Chrome, Opera 10.6+, Internet Explorer 9.0+, and Safari 5. To learn more, check out this article on the Google LatLong blog.

Any complaints, you know where to go.

Forum discussion at Google Maps Help.

Helicopter View Added To Google Maps

Fetched: October 3rd, 2011, 6:04pm CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google Maps

Google added some new design and feature elements to Google Maps.

Helicopter View is one of the cool features Google added last week. It basically flies you through your driving directions. Google said, "Using the 3D preview; however, you can get aerial view of the route, as if you were in a helicopter flying above the road."

Here is a video of it in action:

Google also cleaned up the design of Google Maps. Many small tweaks here and there. This is documented in this blog post.

Forum discussion at Google Maps Help.

Google Maps 7 Pack Being Scaled Down?

Fetched: September 24th, 2011, 10:06am CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google Maps

A WebmasterWorld thread reports that Google may be scaling down the use of the local 7 pack of Google Maps results for some very local specific queries.

One full member at WebmasterWorld said:

Up until a day or two ago, many queries we track that would normally spawn the Google Places 7-pack, have changed. Logged in or logged out of Google services, the local Google Places 7-pack is harder to make come up.
cityname pizza - cityname plumber - cityname locksmith - cityname product, etc.
It seems like Google has turned back a few dials on the queries, to lessen the chance Google Places would automatically spawn.

Personally, I still see the 7-pack for most local queries, here is an example:

It wouldn't surprise me to see Google scale this back with all the anti-trust stuff going on now.

Back in 2009, Google pulled back on this from 10 to 7 local results and then at little later removed SEOs and designers from the local pack completely.

Do you see Google downscaling the local pack in your search results.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Google Places Bug With "Areas Served"

Fetched: September 21st, 2011, 9:50pm CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google Maps

Nyagoslav notified me of a bug with Google Places areas served feature.

In short, when you try to update your Google Places business profile to include specific areas that your business serves, it does not reflect the change.

Several complaint threads can be found at the Google Places Help thread. One user said:

The topic of this discussion is Service Areas and Location Settings. I tried to click on Yes, this business serves customers at their locations and I am able to do all of those features but when I submit the changes and then go back in to check on them, it shows that my listing is set at No, all customers come to the business location. Is anyone else having this issue?

Google has not confirmed the issue and there is no ETA for a fix.

Forum discussion at Google Places Help.

Google Places Bug With "Areas Served"

Fetched: September 21st, 2011, 9:50pm CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google Maps

Nyagoslav notified me of a bug with Google Places areas served feature.

In short, when you try to update your Google Places business profile to include specific areas that your business serves, it does not reflect the change.

Several complaint threads can be found at the Google Places Help thread. One user said:

The topic of this discussion is Service Areas and Location Settings. I tried to click on Yes, this business serves customers at their locations and I am able to do all of those features but when I submit the changes and then go back in to check on them, it shows that my listing is set at No, all customers come to the business location. Is anyone else having this issue?

Google has not confirmed the issue and there is no ETA for a fix.

Forum discussion at Google Places Help.

Business Closure Issues On Google Maps To Be Resolved

Fetched: September 16th, 2011, 5:03pm CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google Maps

Mike Blumenthal covers Google Maps news like I cover search news, he doesn't miss anything when it comes to Google Maps. He has been on top of the Google Maps closure bug that was published in the NY Times and responded to by Google.

The lastest on the topic is Google has a fix. Google told Mike:

As promised, we've recently made a change to our process of displaying when a business has been reported to be closed on its place page. More specifically, we have removed the interim notification about a report having been made so that a listing will only be updated after it has been reviewed by Google and we believe the change to be accurate.
The good news is that Google will only report out a business as being closed after it has been reviewed by Google. There will no longer be the interim message of "Reported to Be Closed".

Anyway for more history on this topic, see Mike's blog.

Forum discussion at Sphinn.

+Snippets For Google Maps

Fetched: September 16th, 2011, 3:26am CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google Maps

Google announced you can now share your Google Maps over Google + with the +Snippets.

Google said:

But with +snippets, Google+ users can easily share directions or places (for example) with fellow travelers. Just click "Share..." in the Google+ bar at the top of the screen, and whatever you see on Maps is what you'll see in the sharebox - ready to share with your circles.

Here is a picture, click on it to enlarge:

Google can share these maps as Directions, Places, and search results. This is also available for Books, Offers and Product Search as well as on publisher sites, like this one.

Forum discussion at WemasterWorld.

KML Uploads Not Working On Google Maps

Fetched: September 13th, 2011, 3:02pm CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google Maps

There are confirmed reports in a Google Maps Help thread that Google Maps KML support is not currently working.

What are KML files?

KML, or 'Keyhole Markup Language', is an XML grammar and file format for modeling and storing geographic features such as points, lines, images, polygons, and models for display in Google Earth, Google Maps and other applications. You can use KML to share places and information with other users of these applications. You can find example KML files on the KML Gallery and Google Earth Community site that describe interesting features and places.

But as of a few days ago, they stopped working for users.

One user said:

German users report not being able to upload KML or GMX files to GoogleMaps / My Places anymore (not even for older KML files which have been uploaded earlier ) So I tried it with one of my KML files I have successfully imported 8/31/2011 using a KML file of my PC folders.
Trying today to upload the same KML file fails!
What gives?

Google Maps representative, Vanessa, confirmed the issue and said they are working on a fix. She said:

An update for you guys: We've identified the issue, and we've got a fix in the works. I don't have an exact timing for when the fix will be live, but expect it to be soon. I'll keep everyone posted once the fix is out.
Thanks for bringing this to our attention, everyone!

How soon it will be fixed, is currently not known.

Forum discussion at Google Maps Help.

Google Buys Zagat For Local Reviews & More

Fetched: September 10th, 2011, 12:53pm CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google Maps

Yesterday, Google announced they have acquired Zagat, one of the most trusted and respected local reviews sources out there - and have been for years before the internet.

How will this impact Google? Well, mostly on the local front. Google explained:

Moving forward, Zagat will be a cornerstone of our local offeringâ"delighting people with their impressive array of reviews, ratings and insights, while enabling people everywhere to find extraordinary (and ordinary) experiences around the corner and around the world.
Their surveys may be one of the earliest forms of UGC (user-generated content)â"gathering restaurant recommendations from friends, computing and distributing ratings before the Internet as we know it today even existed. Their iconic pocket-sized guides with paragraphs summarizing and "snippeting" sentiment were "mobile" before "mobile" involved electronics.

Google will be bringing Zagat's content, knowledge and experience to Google search and Google Maps in the future. How so exactly, that remains to be seen.

There is currently a lot of debate on the future implementation and the focus of Google on this acquisition.

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Questions On Google Places? Google Is Taking Them.

Fetched: September 10th, 2011, 12:53pm CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google Maps

A Google Places Help thread announced Google is now taking questions from businesses owners on Google Places related questions.

Jay from the Google Places team wrote:

Wanted to make sure you saw: We've opened up a Google Moderator page to collect your ideas for and questions about Google Places for business. Help us spread the word!
A little more than a year ago, you'll remember, we took questions and posted a bunch of video responses. See them here:
http://www.youtube.com/user/GooglePlaces#grid/user/B2743DB48CBBDDB2
This time, we'll be taking questions for two weeks, starting today. Look for responses from Googlers directly on the Moderator page, as well as more video responses (stay tuned to the Google Small Business Blog, YouTube and Twitter for those responses).
Start sharing your ideas right now:https://www.google.com/moderator/#16/e=ba1ca

To submit or vote on questions, go to this page. Then in about a few weeks, Google will start responding to the questions directly within the Google Moderator page and also use some questions to post on their Google Places YouTube Channel.

I know there are lot of questions out there, so here is your chance to make yourself heard and then maybe get a response.

Forum discussion at Google Places Help.

Google: We Currently Do Not Support The Location

Fetched: September 2nd, 2011, 6:42pm CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google Maps

Over the past few days, there has been a spike in the number of complaints from business owners that Google is spitting out errors in Google Places that reads, "We Currently Do Not Support The Location."

People are saying when they link to their Google Maps/Places page, such as this one, it shows that message.

This is not a global issue, my place page works just fine but many are complaining about the issue.

Google's Jay said:

I've escalated this issue to our engineers so they can investigate why this is happening. I'll keep you posted.

The first report came on August 26th or so and they are still having issues. Google did not reply until August 30th.

Mike Blumenthal also covered it back in June and then again yesterday to note the spike in these reports.

We have no estimated time for a fix.

Forum discussion at Google Places Help.

Search Google Maps By Talking

Fetched: August 28th, 2011, 5:59am CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google Maps

Google announced that they have brought over the voice search feature from mobile and the Google home page to Google Maps.

So now you no longer have to type your location's name, just say it.

I ran about twenty tests and it worked pretty well. It had some issues with Hebrew named locations, but overall, it worked very well. I even said Yerushalayim, Israel and it figured it out as Jerusalem, Israel. Yerushalayim is the Hebrew name for Jerusalem.

Does it work well for you?

Forum discussion at Google Maps Help.

Google Maps Directions Leads To $100 Traffic Ticket

Fetched: August 28th, 2011, 5:59am CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google Maps

Imagine you just get out of the airport, you have your trusty Google Maps directions with you, either printed out or via your Android phone and you leave the airport trusting Google is taking you a trusted way.

Then all of a sudden a cop pulls you over and hands you a fine for $100 for taking a road reserved for special types of drivers?

That is exactly what happened to one driver who complained about it in a Google Maps Help forum thread.

The problem directions was documented by one user as you can see below.

He explains:

For the example above, the destination is OUTSIDE the Dulles airport; the origination point is just east of the start of the Dulles Access Rd. It is illegal for drivers to go on the "inner" (non-toll) lanes of the Dulles Access Rd if they do not have official business at an airport destination (as passenger, picking up an arrival, work at the airport, etc). You can't drive on the Dulles Access Rd. to skip the tolls on the "outer" toll lanes of route 267if you don't have a "need" to be at the airport....Google makes a bad routing decision in the link above at the very first intersection. Since my destination is outside the airport property, I would not be allowed to skip the toll by driving on the inner lanes of the Dulles Access Rd....I must drive on the outer toll lanes of Rt 267....Google chooses the (illegal for my destination) inner non-toll lanes.

So, should Google pay the fine? :)

Forum discussion at Google Maps Help.

Google Maps Weather Layer

Fetched: August 22nd, 2011, 2:26pm CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google Maps

Google Maps has added a weather layer to let you see weather around the world, including forecast data.

To see it yourself, just go to maps.google.com/maps?lci=weather. It should load a page like this:

You can always zoom in or search for a location:

So while it is a bit chiller where I am in Suffern, if I drove a few miles towards Nyack I can warm up a bit.

Note, you can also click on a reading and get a forecast for the future.

Google said the cloud data for this layer comes from U.S. Naval Research Lab, the weather data is from our partner weather.com.

Here is a video demo:

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Complaints: Google Maps Listings Removed From Organic Results

Fetched: August 3rd, 2011, 3:22pm CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google Maps

I've bee noticing a slight uptick in complaints about Google Places results not showing up in organic searches on Google.com.

There are three threads at the Google Places Help forums with complaints. They all include business owners complaining that since a week or so ago, doing searches on Google no longer triggers their business listing from showing up in the map results on web search.

One business owner said, "my Google places has gone from Google search, it was always in 2nd place, now there is not even a dot."

Jay from Google replied telling the business owner to read the known issues page but honestly, all it says is:

If you added or updated your listing and you're unable to find it when doing a search, there's nothing to worry about. In most cases, you should be able to find your listing by performing a search for [your business name in your city, zip code]. If you just added your listing, it can take up to 24 hours for your listing to show up on Google.

Keep in mind that when you make changes to your listing, it may shift that balance a bit. Your listing's placement in search results will vary, but in the long run, having a correct, comprehensive, and up-to-date listing is the most effective way to ensure the best possible ranking. Learn more about search results and ranking on Google.

I am not sure how wide spread this issue is or if it is specific to some sites. But I do not think it is related to this known issue. Maybe Google added a known issue that I do not see yet.

Forum discussion at Google Places Help.

Google To Enable Multiple Account Administering Of Maps Listings?

Fetched: August 2nd, 2011, 3:21pm CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google Maps

For years, the topic of allowing multiple accounts to manage a Google Place listing has been a hot and often requested feature.

The issue comes up often where someone claimed a listing but needs to transfer or also delegate permission for someone else to manage a business listing within Google Maps / Google Places.

Well, it might be coming soon - maybe?

A Google Places Help thread has Joel H. from Google said "We'd like to have a great interfacing for sharing listing between multiple accounts, but have no details to share yet."

Of course, Joel is not saying much here but he is alluding to it being a possibility in the future. How soon? I am not sure but we can be hopeful.

Forum discussion at Google Places Help.

Google Maps Usability Study This Monday

Fetched: July 30th, 2011, 9:38pm CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google Maps

Do you love Google Maps? Do you want to give Google your feedback on the product? Do you want to receive a choice of $100 Amazon gift certificate, $100 Google Store credit, or $100 donation to your favorite charity?

Well, here is your chance.

Google's Beth L. announced in a Google Maps Help thread they are holding a usability study on the Google Maps product this Monday, August 1st at their office in Mountain View, California.

The study will take place between from 12:15pm-1:30pm and they are trying to enlist five to seven people for the study. If you are picked, you will walk away with either a $100 Amazon gift certificate, $100 Google Store credit, or $100 donation to your favorite charity.

To sign up for a chance to be picked, go to this Google form and fill it out. Google said they will let you know by the end of the day today.

Forum discussion at Google Maps Help.

Business Descriptions Go Missing In Google Maps

Fetched: July 26th, 2011, 11:01am CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google Maps

We have confirmed reports that some businesses listed in Google Maps / Places have noticed their business descriptions have gone missing.

A Google Places Help thread has several reports with confirmation from Googlers.

One place is an appliance store in Fort Worth, Texas who is completely missing their business description.

Normally the business description would show up under the grayed out tags or categories but here they do not.

Vanessa from Google said last Friday:

Just to be clear: descriptions have not disappeared with the new Place page changes. We've just pushed a new listings index â" please give it a couple days for the info to reappear. But keep us posted if you see they don't come back so we can take a deeper look.

As of a few days later, the issue is still not resolved. I hope it is soon.

Forum discussion at Google Places Help.

Google Maps Without Third Party Reviews

Fetched: July 22nd, 2011, 4:45pm CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google Maps

It seems like Yelp won or did they? Google wanted to source third party reviews because their own review database was limited. Yelp wanted to keep getting traffic from Google but not have Google simply source their reviews on their site.

Google updated the place pages and they now have the new overall design, plus remove the third party reviews, except for a small link.

Here is a picture of Airmont Eats place page. I cropped it a bit, but you can see how Google is strongly encouraging users to write reviews, then shows only their reviews at the top with a small link to third party web site reviews from Yelp and others.

Google said:

Based on careful thought about the future direction of Place pages, and feedback we've heard over the past few months, review snippets from other web sources have now been removed from Place pages. Rating and review counts reflect only those that've been written by fellow Google users, and as part of our continued commitment to helping you find what you want on the web, we're continuing to provide links to other review sites so you can get a comprehensive view of locations across the globe.

Of course, those businesses that feel like they "lost" most of their reviews are not happy. We have threads at Google Places Help and Google Maps Help. One business owner said:

I'm really worried about all the small businesses I work with that just lost 2/3 of their review count because of the 3rd party reviews being gone from the count (and they're also not really displayed unless you dig down). I'm guessing you guys already thought this through but I've already seen tons of posts of business owners that seem very upset.

I guess time will tell, but I have a feeling those reviews are never coming back, at least not directly on Google Maps.

Forum discussion at Google Places Help and Google Maps Help.

Google Maps Bug: Business Pending Review

Fetched: July 19th, 2011, 11:00pm CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google Maps

There are dozens of threads at the Google Places and Maps forums with complaints that their business listings within Google Places have been suddenly changes to "Pending" status, from the "Active" status.

A Google Places Help thread has confirmation from Google that this is indeed a bug. Google Places representative, Brianna, confirmed last night that the issue is a bug in the Google Places system and Google is working on fixing it. Brianna said:

Thanks for reporting this issue. We are aware that listings have reverted to pending in users' accounts. To check if your listing is live, please do a search in Google Maps for [BUSINESS NAME in POSTAL CODE].
Boost ads are unaffected by this issue.
We will follow up with more information when we have it.

Personally, I do not seem to be affected by this bug - but many many businesses and local SEOs are reporting this issue.

There is no estimated time for a fix.

Forum discussion at Google Places Help.

Southern Sudan Being Added To Google Maps

Fetched: July 19th, 2011, 11:00pm CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google Maps

On July 9, 2011, South Sudan became an independent state and on the 14th it became a member state at the United Nations.

Now that this has been made official, as per the United Nations, Google is rushing to revise their maps of Sudan.

A Google Maps Help thread asked Google to make the update. Googler, Daniel, from the Maps team said they are working on it.

He said:

We work hard to make our maps as accurate as possible and we do our best to ensure they reflect the on-the-ground reality. As maps are always evolving, we regularly review additional information and update when data becomes available.
Following the formal independence of South Sudan, we are in the process of updating our map and boundary data for the region. We look forward to publishing this updated data on our maps in the near future.

How soon is "near future"? I am not sure, but Google is typically quick when it comes to major events being reflected on maps.

Forum discussion at Google Maps Help.

Google Maps Mixing Up Canadian Postal Code

Fetched: July 17th, 2011, 12:08pm CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google Maps

A Canadian Google Maps user is upset that Google Maps no longer shows the correct Canadian postal codes for addresses.

He posted his complaint in a Google Maps Help thread and listed some examples. One example was for the address, 10 Charnby Place, St. Catharines. The postal code should be L2N6Y3 but Google shows L2N6X7.

Mapquest Gets It Right:

But Bing just gives up and lists the L2N only:

The user said Google had it right a couple days ago but something recently changed.

Forum discussion at Google Maps Help.

Google Maps Removes Driving With Traffic Estimates

Fetched: July 14th, 2011, 3:44pm CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google Maps

I am not sure exactly when this happened, but Google Maps has dropped one of the more useful features. The feature is, estimating how much time it would take to drive somewhere with traffic, either live traffic or predictive traffic based on day/time.

Now, the feature is gone.

A Google Maps Help thread has a Googler explaining they removed it because it wasn't accurate enough. Daniel from Google explained:

We have decided that our information systems behind this feature were not as good as they could be. Therefore, we have taken this offline and are currently working to come up with a better, more accurate solution. We are always working to bring you the best Google Maps experience with updates like these!

Personally, I found Google's traffic data more accurate than any other live traffic information. Google croudsourced phones for real time traffic data and I thought it worked well.

Old:

New:

Google launched traffic estimates back in 2007.

The thing is, the traffic estimates still do work, just not on Google Maps. You can use your iPhone and get the details. I am not sure if it still works on Android as well.

Hope they don't remove it from the iPhone because I use this feature a lot.

Forum discussion at Google Maps Help.

Locksmiths Local Spam Embarrases Google Maps

Fetched: July 12th, 2011, 2:44am CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google Maps

Anyone in the SEO industry, especially those that focus on local SEO, know that the locksmith category is one of the most heavily spammed keywords within Google Maps.

David Segal from the New York Times decided to publish an article on it over the weekend. It is named Picking the Lock of Google's Search although NY Times SEO'ed title tag for the story is "Lead Gen Sites Pose Challenge to Google - the Haggler."

The article tells a story around Bob Strom, a legitimate locksmith in the Seattle area who loses out to lead generation sites selling locksmith services to under qualified companies or individuals who rip off customers, at least according to the article. Who's at fault? Google?

You might assume that lead gen sites would be no competition for people like Bob Strom. But for a couple of years, in one crucial arena, they have been crushing him: Google search results. Last Tuesday, the Haggler typed "emergency locksmith Seattle" into a browser, and the top results - most notably, the seven that appeared in the highly coveted Google Places spots, which are marked on an area map - appeared to be lead gen sites. They have local addresses, but if you call and ask to visit, they demur.

Honestly, the locksmith problem on Google Maps has improved drastically from years ago. It isn't "good" yet, but it is better from where it was, in my opinion.

Google told the NY Times:

We're aware of the gaming practices happening in the locksmith industry - practices which long predate Google and have affected the Yellow Pages for decades. We've implemented several measures to combat this issue, including improving our spam-detection algorithms and working with the locksmith industry to find solutions.

Anyway, like Matt McGee said at Search Engine Land, "Although the Times' article doesnât reveal anything new, local search watchers and, more importantly, real local locksmiths can hope that the added exposure compels Google to finally solve this long-running problem."

Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.

Google Maps Reviews Bug Being Fixed

Fetched: July 9th, 2011, 7:50am CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google Maps

Yesterday we reported on a major bug impacting lots of Google Place business page holders and their reviews. The reviews within Google Maps went missing and for many, have still not been recovered.

At first, I thought the issue had to do with a new reviews spam algorithm that went bad. I was wrong. It is another type of bug, although Google won't say exactly what it was.

Joel Headley from Google said "I have confirmed that this isn't a spam issue. It's a problem on our end we're actively working to fix."

Vanessa from Google updated the Google Places Help and Google Maps Help threads saying:

We think we've discovered the core problem and we're actively working on a fix. Again, thank you to all the helpful individuals who posted details about what you were seeing. I'll keep you posted as I hear more.

So I hope you all get your reviews back soon!

Forum discussion at Google Places Help and Google Maps Help.

Google Removes Maps Reviews That Are "Spammy"

Fetched: July 7th, 2011, 8:11pm CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google Maps

Over the past few days I have been seeing an enormous number of complaints in the various forums that the reviews within ones Google Places listing have been removed. Yes, Google Maps reviews have gone missing.

At first, I thought it was a bug, like the dozens of other times we reported these issues.

But this time it has to do with a Google Maps reviews spam update.

Google Maps representative, Vanessa, said in a Google Places Help thread and Google Maps Help thread that the reason for all the reviews going away was because Google pushed out a Maps reviews spam filter. Vanessa explained:

We've noticed a lot of posts in the forum here these past 48 hours about missing reviews on Place pages. Thanks so much for sending in these reports, we're looking into it! Please leave any additional feedback here.
Some things to keep in mind in the mean time:
There are many reasons why a review may not appear on a Place page. We're constantly working to make sure our reviews are legit and high-quality. And so to do this, we have systems in place that may remove individual reviews (ones that we find to be spammy or abusive). Some of you guys may be experiencing these review takedowns. Sometimes our systems may remove legitimate reviews in our effort to cut down on the abuse, but overall we believe these measures are for the good of presenting quality reviews on Google.

Like any spam prevention mechanism, it is not perfect and Google will improve it over time. I have seen reports of reviews coming back into the system since the initial reports of some of the reviews have missing.

Forum discussion at Google Places Help and Google Maps Help.

Update: Joel from Google informed me after careful review it is not a spam filter. He said, "I have confirmed that this isn't a spam issue. It's a problem on our end we're actively working to fix."

Google Places Hit By Flaming Bag Of Poop

Fetched: June 25th, 2011, 7:02pm CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google Maps

An old childish prank has made its way to your virtual doorstep, Google Maps.

Everyone growing up has heard of or possibly participated in the old flaming bag of dog poop left at the doorstep of an unsuspecting neighbor. But have you ever seen it done virtually? I have not - at least not until today.

State Farm Insurance agent, Jeff DiBlasi, had his Google Maps/Place page vandalized with poop by someone playing a dirty prank against him. Here is his Google Place page and as you can see, one of the featured pictures is a poop diaper that leaked.

Jeff DiBlasi said in a Google Places Help thread, "Someone put REALLY inappropriate photos of pictures of poo on my business listing."

He did report the image weeks ago but the image is still there.

Is this the new form of dropping a flaming bag of poop at the virtual doorstep of a neighbor or business you dislike?

Forum discussion at Google Places Help.

24 Hour Businesses Out Of Luck On Google Maps?

Fetched: June 17th, 2011, 2:18pm CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google Maps

A Google Places Help thread from the past has gotten some recent attention.

Business owners who are open 24-7 feel they have no clear and easy way of communicating that to their customers on Google Maps via Google Places.

Google offers businesses to label their "hours of operations" but there is no check box for 24 hours.

Google Maps representative, Cecelia said you should try setting the hours of operation to "1:00:00:24:00,2:00:00:24:00". But many businesses are not happy with that option.

Do you think Google Maps should add a 24 hours option?

Forum discussion at Google Places Help.

Google Renames My Maps To My Places & More

Fetched: June 17th, 2011, 2:18pm CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google Maps

Google announced they have renamed My Maps to My Places and have given it a redesign with new features.

Here is a look at the new My Places design, which let's you save locations and routes for later use:

The new features and design changes include:

Renamed to My Places
Items are organized by date with your most recent activity at the top
Filters make it easy to sort and view only your maps, starred locations or rated places
Create and share personalized My Maps through the âCreate new mapâ link.
Drop-down arrow next to each location in your list, you can easily delete any of your saved maps, stars or Google Places ratings.
These personalization changes will automatically be synchronized across all other Google properties including Google Places, Google Maps, and Google Maps for mobile.

When Google Places Product Manager, Vanessa, asked for feature requests after announcing the new My Places revamp in the Google Maps Help forum, most people wanted to have a way to document latitude and latitude history.

One person explained it saying, "It would be interesting to have Latitude, somehow, in Maps. It would unify all maps apps together."

Forum discussion at Google Maps Help.

Google Places Phone Verification Not Working

Fetched: June 6th, 2011, 6:33pm CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google Maps

Google allows most businesses to verify their business listings with Google Places over the phone through a phone verification process.

When I verified my business, when Google Places was actually Google Local Business Center, they did not have the phone verification method. I used the old fashion postcard method in the mail that took a couple weeks.

But now, phone verification is fast, less expensive and easier for many.

However, there seems to be a bug preventing it from working for some.

Jay from the Google Places team posted a known issue report in the Google Places Help forum saying:

Some users are facing issues with phone verification. They get an invalid PIN error even after entering the correct PIN received over the phone. We're now working on resolving this issue and the issue should be resolved soon.

There is no ETA for a fix but someone did try it out over the weekend and it still was not working.

Forum discussion at Google Places Help.

Automate Your Google Places Reviews Spam

Fetched: May 27th, 2011, 4:29pm CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google Maps

Mike Blumenthal has a revealing post named How to Use Google Places New RSS Feed To Automate Your Review Spam Farm.

In his post he explains how the new reviews RSS feed in Places can be used to help automate the process of review spam in Google Maps. He detailed the process:

Create one or more MyMaps that includes your clients business listings. To be really âsneakyâ spread them out amongst 4 or 5 MyMaps. It appears that the algo is not yet capable of tracking this sort of pattern of abuse. Be sure to make the MyMap public or at least share it with your minions. This is a one time effort that while somewhat time consuming will allow future dissemination of all the businesses you are reviewing.
Have your many Mechanical Turks each create several Google accounts each. Not too many as that is a signal that Google is catching.
Capture the URL for the RSS Feed for your MyMap lists. (Okay this is a bit tricky not because it is hard but because of Googleâs instructions. Those instructions refer to it as an RSS Feed but there is NO link in MyMaps called RSS. It is actually the link associated with the Google Earth KML download call âView in Google Earthâ. You need to right click and copy the link.)
Assign several MyMaps to each of your Turks, email it to them and suggest that they switch periodically between the MyMap business lists when rating. It adds a nice touch of reality.
Goto to the Google Hotpot interface and instruct them to paste the URL into the search field. Some have suggested that you can add â?count=3000â³ (or whatever number youâd like to display) to the end of the rss link to import more than the default load of 12 but I have yet to get that to work and it is easy enough to click on the load more button

You end up with a page of results that allow you to easily rate and review ratings.

How long will this last? Is it really effective in helping to spam Google Maps?

Forum discussion at Sphinn.

Google Maps Android Update: Version 5.5

Fetched: May 26th, 2011, 8:45pm CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google Maps

The Google Maps team announced a new version of the Android Google Maps app, they are now up to version 5.5.

The new features include:

New check-in and rating buttons added to Place pages
Update home and work address for your Latitude Location History
View the redesigned transit station pages

You can download the new version over here.

Here are some pictures:

Tom from the Google Maps team said in a Google Mobile Help thread:

Hi Google Maps Enthusiasts!
Iâm pleased to announce there's a new version of Google Maps in Android Market, version 5.5!
This release adds redesigned Transit schedules and Place details pages as well as the ability to update your home and work addresses in your Latitude Location History on your phone. Read all about it at the Google Mobile Blog.
As always, please let us know if any issues arise right here in this Help Forum!

Forum discussion at Google Mobile Help.

Google Photo Scam Charging For Photos

Fetched: May 25th, 2011, 9:14am CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google Maps

There are new reports via the Google Places Help forums of business owners claiming they are being charged a few for their photos to show up in Google Maps.

One user said:

When I look at my billing history I see a charge for our Places ad and then I also see and additional charge for $25 for "photos". I never saw anything that indicated that having photos would cost additional money. Can someone at Google Places please explain? Cant find and email address for Places support either. Very frustrating!

The thing is, Google did charge a monthly fee of $25 per month for Google Maps Tags but not photos. Plus, Google recently discontinued this program completely.

Almost a year ago, we reported of companies trying to con others into paying them to place photos in their Google Maps listings. So this is nothing new in general. I do not see how Google would label a charge for "photos" in the maps invoice.

Also, the new Google Business Photos program is also completely free.

So I have to assume this is a scam or a misunderstanding by a couple users.

Forum discussion at Google Places Help.

Google Maps Cache Issue With Layer Switching

Fetched: May 16th, 2011, 3:34am CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google Maps

Amanda L. from Google posted a confirmation of an issue some Google Maps users are having with swapping between various layers on Google Maps.

In a Google Maps Help thread Amanda posted on the issue saying it is a "known issue." She explained:

A number of people using Chrome on Windows are having issues with being unable to switch map types (into or out of satellite), or to toggle layers. We're aware of the problem, and our engineers are working on a solution.
In the meantime, if you are affected by this issue, you can fix the problem by clearing your cache. For detailed instructions on this, see here: http://www.google.com/support/chrome/bin/answer.py?answer=95582
We're actively investigating this issue, and will post back with any further updates.
Thanks for your patience, and my apologies for the inconvenience it has caused.

Another solution is to simply press Ctrl-F5 while on Google Maps to help fix the issue.

So if you are clicking on the Satellite layer and nothing is happening, you are not alone.

Forum discussion at Google Maps Help .

Google Wants Feedback On Searching User Created Maps

Fetched: May 11th, 2011, 10:46pm CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google Maps

Beth L. from the Google Maps team posted a thread at the Google Maps Help forums asking users for feedback on the user created maps feature within Google.

Beth asked for users to post some of their ideas to improve the search functionality for Google My Maps. She explained:

We are looking into ways to improve searching for user-created maps. Today, the best way to find maps is through google search, with a site restrict for maps.google.com. For example, if you want to find maps about earthquakes, you can type site:maps.google.com earthquake. You can also use the tools regular google search provides to make your query more specific: for example you can look for maps created in the last 24 hrs or on a certain day.
Clearly, there are many ways we can make searching for maps even better. We'd like to hear from you, our users, about what kind of maps you would search for, and what kind of functionality would be most useful. Thanks for your feedback!

So if you have any ideas, do let them know.

Forum discussion at Google Maps Help.

Google Drops Tags Ads Within Google Maps

Fetched: April 24th, 2011, 10:27am CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google Maps

About a year ago, Google revamped the Google Local Business Center and renamed it Google Places, part of that was introducing Google "Tags."

A new, simple way to advertise: For just $25 per month, businesses in select cities can make their listings stand out on Google.com and Google Maps with Tags. As of today, we're rolling out Tags to three new cities - Austin, Atlanta and Washington, D.C. - in addition to ongoing availability in Houston and San Jose, CA. In the coming weeks we'll also be introducing Tags in Chicago, San Diego, Seattle, Boulder and San Francisco.

You can see the example of Tags on the picture above.

In September we reported that Google was aggressively pushing tags as a Google ad option. Then in October, they pulled the ability for the website URL tag option, which made it a lot less useful.

Then last week, Google announced the end of tags. Google said:

We've made a decision to shift our efforts toward other present and future product offerings for local businesses, and will be discontinuing this trial. To that end, we've now halted new signups and will be working with existing participating businesses over the coming weeks to help them meet their marketing needs with other Google products where possible.
We've learned a lot from our Tags trial and will take that knowledge into account as we continue to find the best ways to serve users and local businesses alike. Lastly, we want to thank all of the businesses that were part of our Tags trial, and we hope we can meet their advertising needs with one of our existing products.

Forum discussion at DigitalPoint Forums.

Google Places Removes Print Your Own QR Code

Fetched: March 31st, 2011, 2:26am CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google Maps

In December 2009, Google began this big Google Maps business push to get businesses to start using QR codes. It was fairly popular, many businesses who did not get a QR code decal wanted them but Google couldn't easily send them out. So in April 2010, Google added a way for business owner to print their own Google QR code decals.

But now, they are gone. You can no longer print your Google Places decal and QR code from your edit business listings within Google Places. It is gone.

Mike Blumenthal noted an official statement from Google saying:

Users will no longer find unique QR codes in their Places accounts. We're exploring new ways to enable customers to quickly and easily find information about local businesses from their mobile phones.

Is that the end of QR codes? Will you miss them? Have you ever even used them?

Forum discussion at Google Places Help.

IE9 Bugs With Google Maps Embeds

Fetched: March 31st, 2011, 2:26am CEST by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google Maps

There are several complaints in a Google Maps Help forum that the new Internet Explorer 9 does not work on all Google Maps found embedded on web sites.

As you know, many site owners use Google Maps directly on their sites.

And if someone is using Internet Explorer 9, the user may get a weird error when trying to load the page.

The errors may read:

SCRIPT5022: DOM Exception: INVALID_CHARACTER_ERR (5) main.js, line 385 character 152.

Google is now aware of the issue. Brian from Google said:

Apologies for being a little tardy hopping into this thread and for the inconvenience this error is causing. I wanted to let you all know that I've escalated the IE 9 issue and the team is looking into it. I appreciate your continued patience. When I have the latest information, I'll make sure to post it here.

There is no ETA for a fix and I am not sure if it impacts all embed codes and all IE9 users but it does seem to be a problem for many.

Forum discussion at Google Maps Help.

Road Closed? Let Google Maps Know

Fetched: March 11th, 2011, 7:41pm CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google Maps

You are headed to an important business meeting or to meet your girlfriend's parents for the first time and you print out directions using Google Maps. As you are driving along the road, you hit a road closed sign - what do you do now?

Road closures are a common thing and Google is not always aware of all the road closures in every area. But did you know that you can report road closures to Google?

Dave, a Google Product Manager from Seattle, said you can use the "report a problem" link on the Google Maps page to notify Google of road closures. They ask you to also provide a link to a source as evidence of the road closure.

Dave said:

If there's going to be a long road closure in your area, you can report it to us through the "Report a Problem" link in the lower-right corner of the map. If you know the dates of closure, then it's fine (in fact, preferred, since we'd need some time to update our systems) to let us know ahead of time. Make sure you include a pointer to a webpage that confirms the dates of the closure, which our operators can use for verification.

So next time you see a road closure that you didn't see reported on Google Maps - do something about it by reporting it to Google.

Forum discussion at Google Maps Help.

Why Can't Google Fix The Places Response To Reviews Bug

Fetched: February 21st, 2011, 1:04pm CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google Maps

In August 2010, Google released a feature to enable Google Place business owners to respond to reviews in their Google Place pages.

But it didn't work for many, we had complaint after complaint after complaint and Google 'fixed' it at least twice but apparently it is still not fixed.

If you read the ongoing Google Places Help thread, you will see that Google fixed it a couple times, but every time they fix it, people complain that it still doesn't work.

A couple days after Stephan from Google said the issue was fixed, again - people came in to say it still doesn't work for them.

I know how bugs can be and I know Google wants to fix it. So if you are still having issues, explain to Google how they can reproduce those errors so Google can fix this once and for all.

Forum discussion at Google Places Help.

Google Can Notify You When They Update Their Maps Of Your Home

Fetched: January 29th, 2011, 4:17am CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google Maps

One of the most frequent questions I see in the Google Maps Help forum is when will Google update the satellite or street views picture of my house or office. Well, now Google can alert you when there has been update, so that you don't have to manually check every couple of hours.

Brian B. from the Google Maps team announced this in a Google Maps Help thread and a Google Blog post. How does it work?

(1) Go to followyourworld.appspot.com

(2) Login to your Google account if you haven't.

(3) Search for an address or latitude/longitude point.

(4) Align the map to the center, between the cross hairs.

(5) Then hit "Select Point"

(6) Feel free to override the name (if you want)

(7) Hit "Submit"

Next time Google Maps does an imagery update of that area, you will get an email to your Google account.

Here is a picture of the page:

Note, you can always remove these alerts on the dashboard section and for more information, make sure to read the FAQs.

Forum discussion at Google Maps Help.

Can't Reply To Google Maps Negative Reviews? You're Not Alone

Fetched: January 17th, 2011, 10:51pm CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google Maps

Back in August 2010, Google began allowing business owners to reply to reviews placed in their Google Place pages by customers and others.

The issue is, there are dozens of reports that business owners cannot reply to these reviews.

A Google Places Help thread has business owners complaining about the process not working since September 2010. Google said they fixed the issues but ultimately it has not been fixed.

Last week, Cecelia from Google responded to the thread saying:

As a quick update, I've shared all of your reports with our team as examples of the issue. We're looking into this and working to resolve the issue as quickly as possible.

As you can see, it is still not resolved and many business owners have no recourse with negative reviews.

Forum discussion at Google Places Help.

Google Maps UK Junction Labels & My Maps Printer Changes

Fetched: December 30th, 2010, 8:14am CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google Maps

Two quick Google Maps updates for you, one related to the change Google made in the UK and one related to a bug with printing My Maps features.

Google Maps UK Junction Number Labels

I don't know much about how the UK labels their roads, but apparently Google made a change to the Google Maps junction labels to numbers and UK commuters are not happy.

A Google Maps Help thread has some complaints, including this one:

Google Maps seems to have been recently changed from displaying the numbers of non-motorway roads along the road like road names instead of horizontally in a box.

Google agreed and Dave from Google said, "Yes - we are planning to rollback to the previous style. Sorry about the inconvenience in the meantime."

My Maps Printer Issues

A Google Maps Help thread has a complaint where the markers added to a Googler user's My Maps is not printing when he hits the printer view. I confirmed the issue. This guy labeled a bunch of places throughout the tri-state New York area and when he goes to print it, it doesn't print those markers.

Google's Brian B. said, "Thanks for escalating. The team is aware of this printing issue and is working to resolve it asap."

Here is a picture of the maps view:

Here is a picture of the print view:

Forum discussion at Google Maps Help.

How To Spam Google Maps For Top Google Place Listings

Fetched: December 11th, 2010, 12:49pm CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google Maps

Mike Blumenthal has uncovered a way of spamming Google Maps for top results in the new Google Places. He describes the process as "an elegant hack, so simple yet so powerful."

How does it work? Let me quote the process:

The problem is the differences between how the Post Office interprets addresses and how Google places interprets addresses.
If I create a new listing in google places and I give it this information
Name: Maximum Enterprises Street Address (1st line) : 100 W. 1st Street Street Address (2nd line): 225 E. 9th St. Suite 101, #9876 (my note: this could be any deliverable address PO Box, UPS Box or Street Address) City: Los Angeles State: California Zip Code: 90112
Then I select "Verify by mail."
Google sends the PIN number with this address:
Maximum Enterprises 100 W. 1st Street 225 E. 9th St. Suite 101, #9876 Los Angeles, CA 90112
Here's what happens. The Post Office eventually delivers that PIN# to the UPS store at 225 E. 9th St. Suite 101 (it will take a bit of extra time for handling, the ZIP code is actually wrong for the UPS store, so it will kick around the Post Offices a bit before it eventually gets delivered). The guy at the UPS store puts in in box 9876 (fictitious box #, he'll probably trash it or return it, but if I had an actual box there, and used that number for my address on Google, it would go in my box).
I get the PIN and verify it, and Google places my location marker at 100 W. 1st Street (49 feet from the point that Google uses for "Los Angeles, CA").
The post office delivers to the last address line, the line on the envelope closest to the ZIP code. Google places the marker at the first address line. This difference in handling allows anyone to "verify by mail" for any address they want to use that is in the same city as their actual mailing address (or a UPS store/Virtual office location in that city).

Pretty amazing, right? And it works, Mike tried it.

In a Sphinn thread Mike asks if what he did was ethical. Jill Whalen, a prominent SEO, replied saying:

Sure, why not. That can help Google fix things, but in the meantime, everyone else can take advantage of the loopholes!
By making Places Pages so prominently featured in search results right now, Google has opened themselves up to mega super duper spamming. For some, it's going to be the only way to compete with Places Pages.
Even I'm not discouraging clients to have address/phone numbers in the various locations where they operate, as it may be necessary (if not already).
I don't think this is a good thing, but it's Google's bed that we have to lie in.

Forum discussion at Sphinn.

TripAdvisor Blocking Google Places From Indexing Reviews

Fetched: December 11th, 2010, 12:49pm CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google Maps

Yesterday we reported there was a problem with TripAdvisor reviews showing in Google Places, and said Google promised to fix the issue.

We were informed later that TripAdvisor is actually intentionally blocking Google from crawling and indexing their reviews. Tnooz.com reports that TripAdvisor is doing this intentionally.

Tnooz.com said:

TripAdvisor confirmed the move today in an email, stating that while it continues to evaluate recent changes to Google Places it believes the user does not benefit with the "experience of selecting the right hotel".
"As a result, we have currently limited TripAdvisor content available on those pages," an official says.

Wow! Good for them!

Later on, Google confirmed the issue with Tnooz but didn't say they were being blocked intentionally. All they told them was:

We're aware of a technical issue in which TripAdvisor reviews are sometimes not appearing in results for Google Places, and our team is working to resolve the matter. We are not currently requiring review verification, and you can find our review policies and guidelines here.

So which is it? Is it Google being blocked or a technical issue. Seems like Google is being blocked intentionally, which means technically Google has an issue accessing those reviews.

Forum discussion at Sphinn and Google Places Help.

Google Maps 3D Coming Soon

Fetched: December 9th, 2010, 12:28am CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google Maps

Google Maps is launching a 3D version of their mapping program. It is first launching on Android any day now and then to other mobile devices. Ultimately, I assume it will come to Google Maps on your desktop.

Here is a screen shot from Search Engine Land:

This is using vector imaging and not bitmap tiles. So it requires a lot more CPU processing, but for most modern phones and computers, it should be fine.

Here is a video demo from the Wall Street Journal.

Greg Sterling also added that offline mode is coming. Greg said:

The second major enhancement is "offline reliability." The new Maps for Mobile will work without a persistent data connection. It extends to rerouting in Google Navigation, while not connected. And this starts to give Maps for Mobile the persistence of a paper map.

Forum discussion at Google Blogoscoped Forums.

Google Places Bulk Upload Process Now Working

Fetched: December 9th, 2010, 12:28am CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google Maps

A couple weeks ago, we reported that the bulk imports for Google Places was no longer working. Those trying to use it were receiving errors that read, "Unable to connect to feed processing server Please try again in a few minutes."

The issue is said to have been fixed as of yesterday.

Googler, Maps Guide Cecelia, wrote yesterday:

Thanks for sharing your individual reports with this. We've made a change that should resolve this for most users. Please try uploading your bulk files again today. If this doesn't work, try uploading your listings in two files as a work around.
If you're still having trouble after that, ping the thread again.

So far there have been no reports from users if it was fixed or if it is still broken.

Google did say it should be resolved now.

Forum discussion at Google Places Help.

TripAdvisor Reviews To Return To Google Maps

Fetched: December 9th, 2010, 12:28am CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google Maps

There have been reports in the Google Places Help forum and on Mike's blog that TripAdvisor reviews have gone missing from Google Maps, Google Place Pages.

One business owner said:

we have in the last week lost all of our tripadvisor reviews from our google place page...

Mike received a statement from Google saying it is a bug and the reviews will return. Google told him:

We're aware of a technical issue in which TripAdvisor reviews are sometimes not appearing in results for Google Places, and our team is working to resolve the matter.

So if you lost reviews, this may be why.

Forum discussion at Google Places Help.

Man To Use Google Maps To Prove Poorly Maintained Road Caused Damage To Car

Posted: December 3rd, 2010, 1:12pm CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google Maps

A United Kingdom resident posted a thread at the Google Maps Help forum asking if it is possible to get the date of a Google Street View image. The reason he asked is because he want's to sue his local town for not properly taking care of the roads, which ultimately lead to damage on his car.

He said:

I'm pursuing a local council over damaged caused to my car over a neglected area of road.

The only issue is the local council there has rejected his claim. He said he could fight it if he had a good picture from before the road was fixed. Currently, Google Maps has one on their Street Views but he needs the date of the image so he can prove it was before his claim.

There is one way to possibly get the approximate date of a street view. I wrote about that in my how to named Google Shows Dates Of Map Imagery In Google Earth.

Here is a link to the street view image on Google and here is a picture:

In New York, I don't think you can sue the town if you get a flat tire for hitting a pot hole. Can you elsewhere? Not that this guy had a flat tire, but you know.

Forum discussion at Google Maps Help.

Google Places Now Verifying "Edits" With Owners

Posted: December 2nd, 2010, 2:02pm CET by Barry Schwartz

Tags: Google Maps

Mike Blumenthal reports Google is now verifying "edits" made by users to a listing with the business owner, when possible.

This is a good thing, because there are times when competitors may want to hurt you by maybe changing your address, phone number or close your business.

A Google Places Help thread has one or two people stating they received an email from Google about verifying an edit made by a user. The person said he received an email from Google stating "problem with your listing". It said someone suggested they remove his URL and change other information.

Mike posted an email he received from Google, it read:

Please review your listing Hello from Google Places,
To help people searching for businesses like yours, Google is always working to improve the accuracy of local business listings. While reviewing your Places listing for Sundahl & Co Insurance, we found that this business may be permanently closed.
Is this place closed?
Sundahl & Co Insurance 58 Derrick Rd. Bradford PA 16701 United States
Please log in to your Places account and let us know if this business is still open. If we don't hear from you before January 31, 2011, we may remove this listing.
Thank you,
The Google Places Team

I like the idea of Google verifying edits with owners when possible.

Forum discussion at Google Places Help.

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100 items tagged "Maps"

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