Small Business Shift

Update: Scroll to the comments to see a fix if this is causing you trouble. Mike Blumenthal reports that there is a ubiquitous bug in Google Places today, causing phone numbers to be displayed incorrectly after any Places edits. He writes: Any Places edit seems to cause the smooshed phone number bug in Google Places. […]

There are a bunch of websites and consultants advising that companies skip a website in favor of a Facebook Page. But it’s a really bad idea. You should have a Facebook Page, and a basic one can be put together in just a few minutes. But this can’t substitute for your real home on the […]

Google created Webmaster Tools to help you understand what Google knows about your website, and to help spot serious problems hurting your search rankings. Read on to learn how to setup Google Webmaster Tools and then get an overview of everything you can do with it. Signing Up To get started with Google Webmaster Tools, […]

CityGrid Media (publisher of Citysearch, Urbanspoon, and Insiderpages, among others) is releasing a new version of its API, which will include Infogroup data. The press release states: Under the agreement, CityGrid will bundle Infogroup’s core business data together with its own enhanced places content and a growing list of third-party premium content, including social media […]

Google is opening up a forum for asking questions about Google Places. It’s something they did last year, as they say in the announcement: A little more than a year ago, we collected your questions and feedback on Google Places for business via a Google Moderator page. You sent us some great feedback, and we […]

Google announced this morning that the company has acquired Zagat, the longtime provider of local ratings and reviews. This is a big surprise, but fits well with Google’s local search strategy – focused on outright domination, by owning more local content than anyone else. For a sampling of their other recent activities: Google Moves To […]

Google has some exciting news for Google Analytics users, as they have just introduced (active immediately – and filled with your existing data) multi-channel funnels. Traditionally, the only source which received credit for a sale was the last one through which a customer reached your site. If, for instance, a user first found you through […]

A few weeks ago I highlighted a disturbing offer to remove your competitors from Google Places for just $5. Not long after, Mike Blumenthal wrote a post discussing companies being marked as “permanently closed” – presumably by competitors. Amazingly, anyone on the web is allowed to make this type of update. He then very mischievously marked Google’s headquarters […]

There’s a thread at Google+ started by a Googler discussing one reason why the company doesn’t provide much in the way of support. It says: If you have a billion users, and a mere 0.1% of them have an issue that requires support on a given day (an average of one support issue per person […]

Web.com is a fast-growing (publicly traded:WWWW) behemoth in the small business web host/design/market space. About a year ago the company purchased Register.com (roughly doubling its size), and a few days ago it bought Network Solutions (tripling it on top of the previous acquisition). Coincidentally, a critical piece was written at Mike Blumenthal’s local search blog regarding a Register.com […]