Category Archives: Organic SEO

Google Offers Now Available to iPhone Users

Last Updated On March 14th, 2024Organic SEO, Search Engine News, , , , , ,

Photo from Official Google Blog

Today, Google launched its new Google Offers app for iPhone on its official blog. iPhone users can now find, buy and redeem Google Offers in their area from their mobile phones. Here are some of the key features of Google Offers for iPhone:

  • iPhone users can find offers near them in map view or search for deals by category
  • There is no need to print a voucher, users can buy and redeem their offers with their iPhone instantly
  • Users can track purchased and saved offers in “My Offers” online or on the iPhone
  • Users can get notifications sent to their iPhones when new deals become available in their area or when a deal they’ve purchased is about to expire

Apple Announces New Maps App at WWDC 2012

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At the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference WWDC 2012 during Apple CEO, Tim Cook’s keynote, a demo of the new Maps was presented on an iPad. Cook shared some details about how the new Apple Maps application would work.  Blogger, Tim Stevens, with Engaget.com was live blogging from the event. Here are some details he shared with his audience:

  •  In iOS6, Apple has built an entire new mapping solution from the ground up.
  • Apple has already ingested more than 100 million business listings. Info cards are very well populated and there’s Yelp integration.
  • Apple is building a traffic service. It’s a simple presentation with red bars showing traffic slowdowns and icons showing construction, accidents, etc. Apple is also building turn-by-turn navigation. Traffic is monitored in realtime with the ETA updated dynamically. If you need to be re-routed that will be offered as a pop-up notification. It’s integrated with Siri so you can ask things like “Where can I get gas?” and it will find some on the way.
  • There’s a 3D flyover view of cities – very similar to what Google announced at it’s own event last week.
  • Maps are vector-based like Google Maps. There’s quick rotating and zooming with gestures. Zoom in far enough and 3D pops up. There’s very quick tapping through info cards. You can lower the view and see the whole city in the background.
  • In Stevens’ opinion, the graphics looked good. He said it is nothing different than Google Maps but appears to be cleaner and smoother.

In the next coming weeks, we expect to hear more information about Apple’s dive into local search. Until then, what do you think of Apple’s announcement of the new Maps application? What will it mean for your business?

Google Shopping Will Soon Charge Merchants for Listings

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Soon, online retailers will have to pay in order to have their products displayed on Google Shopping. Currently, retailers can provide information to Google about their products and have them displayed on the site for free. However, Google has made the decision to begin charging for its product listings.

The listings will also be displayed differently after Google begins charging for the service. Currently, when someone searches for a certain product, such as “vacuum cleaner,” the top five most popular vacuum cleaners from the shopping page are displayed under a few organic listings on the results page. After the change, those links will begin to appear above the main search results with images of what Google thinks are the most relevant products on the Google Shopping site.

While some marketers are happy about the new Google Shopping site, others fear that it could be the beginning of the end of Google’s free business listings. Small retailers also worry that paid Google Shopping listings will make it difficult for them to compete with the large advertising budget of big online retailers.

What do you think about paid product listings in Google Shopping; is good thing or a bad thing?