Early this morning, we observed an interesting development in one of our clients’ Google listings.
Google Maps shows two different listings for the same business. In some cases they are almost completely different records, but in other cases the listings are nearly identical. The most common differences are found in the business’s address or phone number.
We’ve grouped these phenomena into two categories: alias duplicates and exact duplicates.
In the case of the alias duplicates, the authentic listing shows up exactly as it is supposed to—the contact information and content we provided appear as expected. However, another business listing can be found that contains identical contact information and content; the only noticeable difference is the business name.
To determine if the listing is an alias duplicate, copy the permalink to the listing (which can be found in the link box). Travel to this link instead of the link you’re already viewing. There will be a question mark (?) in front of the CID and then a number. This number is the unique content identifier used by Google. If they are the exact same number, you’ll be looking at the exact same record, but with two different faces. The results shown depend upon the user’s query. To establish which record is the primary record, remove every part of the URL after the CID number. Traveling to this link will bring you to the primary record, which is the most trustworthy listing. The other record is maintained by Google just in case someone is to directly search for that business by its content alone.
For example, if ABC Plumbing was the primary record and Powerhouse Plumbing was the alias duplicate, Powerhouse Plumbing would only be viewed if someone directly queried Powerhouse Plumbing, since all of the content in the record would yield results for ABC Plumbing. It’s for this reason that a primary record and its duplicate listing will never be seen in the same search results.
Unfortunately, there’s very little we can do about this anomaly, but comfort can be taken in the fact that the alias duplicate can only be found when a user searches for that business name directly—there’s no other way to find the duplicate listing. On top of this, any attempt to utilize the contact information will result in contact with the business in the primary record.
Exact duplicates are listings that closely match the business name and contact information, but have entirely different content. They also have different records, or CIDs. At first glance, it looks as though Google has failed to compress these accounts into a single listing. This could be due to the fact that the two records do not have overlapping categories, or much of any other comparable information for that matter.
In order to let Google know about these issues, take the following steps:
When you notice these records on an A-J Google Maps search, go to the bottom of the page. Click the link that reads “Report a problem,” note that the search results contain multiple listings for the same place, and then note that the two records are exact duplicates.
When was the last time you turned to a paper telephone directory when looking for a local business? This is the exact question major telecoms are posing to regulators so they may discontinue printing white pages, literally by the millions of pounds a year.
Numerous studies show most consumers use the Internet for local search. BIA/Kelsey finds 97% of consumers use web to shop locally. The below article cites a 2008 Gallup survey which reports only 11% of households rely on paper white pages, and it has certainly decreased since the survey was conducted.
As a result, major telecoms including AT&T and Verizon are seeking approval to discontinue printing white pages in many states throughout the country. This move demonstrates the importance of a local internet marketing strategy.
Companies Yank Cord on Residential Phone Books
By MICHAEL FELBERBAUM, AP Business Writer Michael Felberbaum, Ap Business Writer – Thu Nov 11, 2:06 pm ET
RICHMOND, Va. – What’s black and white and read all over? Not the white pages, which is why regulators have begun granting telecommunications companies the go-ahead to stop mass-printing residential phone books, a musty fixture of Americans’ kitchen counters, refrigerator tops and junk drawers.
In the past month alone, New York, Florida and Pennsylvania approved Verizon Communications Inc.’s request to quit distributing residential white pages. Residents in Virginia have until Nov. 19 to provide comments on a similar request pending with state regulators.
Telephone companies argue that most consumers now check the Internet rather than flip through pages when they want to reach out and touch someone.
“Anybody who doesn’t have access to some kind of online way to look things up now is probably too old to be able to read the print in the white pages anyway,” joked Robert Thompson, a pop culture professor at Syracuse University.
Phone companies note that eliminating residential white pages would reduce environmental impact by using less paper and ink. It also can’t hurt their bottom lines to cut out the cost of a service that rarely gets used and generates little beyond nostalgia.
The first telephone directory was issued in February 1878 — a single page that covered 50 customers in New Haven, Conn. That sheet grew into a book that became virtually a household appliance, listing numbers for neighbors, friends and colleagues, not to mention countless potential victims of prank calls.
Fewer people rely on paper directories for a variety of reasons: more people rely solely on cell phones, whose numbers typically aren’t included in the listings; more listings are available online; and mobile phones and caller ID systems on land lines can store a large number of frequently called numbers.
The number of traditional land lines has been declining for the better part of the decade, and now are being disconnected at a rate of nearly 10 percent each year, according to company financial reports.
And a survey conducted for SuperMedia Inc. by Gallup shows that between 2005 and 2008, the percentage of households relying on stand-alone residential white pages fell from 25 percent to 11 percent. Dallas-based SuperMedia, which publishes Verizon’s telephone directories, has instead focused on its yellow pages and paid advertising listings, and their online equivalents.
Unlike the residential white pages, the business directories printed on yellow pages are doing fine, at least according to the Yellow Pages Association. The industry trade group claims more half the people in the U.S. still let their fingers do the walking every month, and that 550 million residential and business directories are still printed every year.
As for the white pages, Steve Keschl can attest to the declining interest. As a doorman at an Upper East Side condo building since 1960, the 84-year-old has watched tenants’ fading reaction to the annual delivery of New York City’s white pages book — which incidentally weighs in around 3 pounds, 9 ounces, or a little more than a dozen iPhones.
These days, the books “sit here pretty long,” said Keschl, who added that even he rarely uses the directory anymore. “Sometimes they take them, sometimes they don’t.”
While New York and other cities still have stand-alone white pages, many of the thousands of phone directories across the country include residential white pages, yellow business listings and blue government pages. Where they no longer have to print the white pages, publishers will simply slim down their combined books.
Verizon and AT&T Inc. — the two largest land line players — and others have requested exemptions from state requirements to distribute residential phone books in paper form. The directories would be available on the Internet, printed upon request or provided on CD.
“You probably have a better chance of finding a name quicker if you can just search for it in a database than try to look it up in the white pages,” said Link Hoewing, Verizon’s vice president of Internet and technology policy.
Since 2007, states that have granted permission to quit printing residential listings or that have requests pending include: Alabama, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia and Wisconsin.
New York-based Verizon’s plan is to seek regulatory approval in all 12 states where it operates land line telephone service. In total, the savings could top 17,000 tons of paper annually throughout Verizon’s service areas, the company said.
The company and its printer, which uses the Verizon brand name in lieu of payment for publishing the white pages, would not provide any estimates on the cost of printing the directories or how much money would be saved by discontinuing them.
Regulators in New York approved Verizon’s request Oct. 14. There, the company estimates it will save about 3,575 tons of paper per year and conserve the energy associated with printing, binding and distributing the directories. The company’s August request with Virginia regulators is estimated to save about 1,640 tons of paper annually.
Verizon plans to continue to deliver directories that contain business and governmental listings along with the consumer guide information provided in white pages directories, but the residential listings would only be available by request.
Dallas-based AT&T did not respond to repeated messages from The Associated Press seeking comment for this story.
According to filings with state regulators, AT&T said in places where it has been permitted to provide the white pages on demand, only about 2 percent of customers have requested a copy.
The residential phone book “no longer provides the same utility it once did,” AT&T told Missouri regulators, who approved the company’s petition for the state’s larger metropolitan areas. “The vast majority of customers neither need nor use these often quite large, bound paper directories.”
If the white pages are nearing their end, then Emily Goodmann hopes the directories would be archived for historical, genealogical or sociological purposes.
“The telephone directory stands as the original sort of information network that not only worked as kind of a social network in a sense, but it served as one of the first information resources,” said Goodmann, a doctoral student at Northwestern University who is writing her dissertation on the history of phone books as information technology. “It’s sort of heartbreaking … even though these books are essentially made to be destroyed.”
Associated Press writers Samantha Gross and Peter Svensson in New York contributed to this report.
The original source of this article can be found at Yahoo! News.
We recently redesigned our corporate websites here at localsplash.com and over at relevantads.com. The problem we encountered was that we had tested our new designs at a different URL then at localsplash.com. Therefore we needed to change the URL from test.localsplash -> localsplash.com.
After quite a long time of searching for a WORKING example we finally were able to piece the process together from various blogs. Hopefully this will help other people who might have been as stumped as we were with this process.
Disclaimer: These steps imply you know how to use very basic ftp and command line skills and have access to modify via database, ftp and ssh.
Configuration:
We have a LiquidWeb server with cPanel running Apache and WordPress. We decided to switch a domain from http://test.domain.com to http://www.domain.com.
Steps:
1) Modify Apache to recognize the URL. The httpd.conf file is located at the following path: /usr/local/apache/conf/httpd.conf
Do a “ctl+F” and look in the file for “old.domain.com” or “domain.com” (should be in two places) and modify the URLs- ServerName “newdomain.com” ServerAlias “www.newdomain.com” to your new URLS. We used subdomain but the process is the same whether you are changing from a subdomain or not.
2) Save and restart Apache. This process involves connecting via a telnet/ssh client such a Putty a)Connect via client by typing username and password b)Find correct directory below and restarting Apache /usr/local/apache/bin/apachectl restart
3) Modify wp-config.php File is located in /home/[first eight characters of existing domain name]/public_html/ Hard code the variable $table_prefix to be equal to the old site value; i.e.: $table_prefix = ‘testdomaincom_’; HINT: Place this new line under this line “$table_prefix = $table_prefix . ‘_’;” in the wp-config file
4) Modify WP Database; set the value of site & home to the new domain name. a) Find your database and search in your “domain_options” table for the 2 rows named “Site” and “Home” and change them from “http://olddomain.com”->”http://newdomian.com”
If you have any questions please ask them in the comment section below and we will be more than happy to help. Thanks
