Tag Archives: search engine news

Bing Local Search Pages to Be “Powered By Yelp”

Last Updated On August 13th, 2014Search Engine News, , , , , , ,

Bing localAccording to an article on TechCrunch.com, Bing and Yelp announced a partnership that will bring Yelp’s local business content to Bing’s local search pages. The pages will now say “Powered by Yelp,” and will integrate Yelp’s reviews, photos and business information with Bing’s local search pages.

The partnership with Yelp is not the only agreement Bing has made lately. It has also partnered with Qwiki, a video startup that translates text content into video and integrated with Facebook. These partnerships aim to increase the quality of Bing’s search results in an attempt to take on the search giant, Google.Yelp

In late 2009, Google was considering buying Yelp for half a billion dollars. However, tensions grew between the two companies after Google crawled Yelp’s content and used it for its Places application without forming a partnership. Google then decided to buy Zagat instead and get rid of all of Yelp’s information. Zagat is now a chief component in Google’s newest local search application, Google+ Local.

Although Bing’s new partnerships look promising for the search engine, getting people to switch from Google to Bing is a tough job. Which search engine do you use? Do Bing’s recent attempts to better its service entice you to switch from Google to Bing?

Apple Announces New Maps App at WWDC 2012

Organic SEO, , , ,

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’s New Approach to Local Search: Google+ Local

Last Updated On August 13th, 2014Local SEO, , , , , , , , ,

Yesterday, Google rolled out Google+ Local, Google’s integration of Google+ and Google Places. According to the Google and Your Business Blog, Google+ Local’s aim is to “improve the way people discover new businesses, rediscover places they love and share them with their friends across the Web.”

Google Places pages will soon be replaced by Google+ business pages with a new design and layout (see photo). In the new design, all of the basic business information is still present, however there is more emphasis put on photos and reviews. On many business listings, the user will be able to go a step further using the “street view” option on Google Maps and even venture inside the actual business location.

Googlepluslocal

Now local businesses will be found across Google search, Maps, mobile and Google+ with just one listing. Customers will be able to share their experience with others through reviews and recommend businesses to friends. Google+ Local has integrated Zagat reviews in order to allow users to share exactly what makes a particular business stand out.

“This is a major upgrade in user interface and there are new features and capabilities as well there may be some lost or modified facets such as Google Posts and maybe Offers,” said Local Splash Founder and CTO, David Rodecker. “More details will be determined as Google evolves Google+ and adapts to user social patterns.”

Right now, business owners can still manage their business information in Google Places for Business. If your Places page is already ranked high in the search results the best way to ensure your rankings stay intact is to stay on top of the changes being made to your listing and create a Google+ page for your business if you haven’t already.

Local Splash clients have nothing to fear. Local Splash has the resources it takes to understand the impact of a change like this and determine what adaptations need to be taken to keep clients ranking well.

“We have anticipated a move like this for some time and we have positioned our clients quite well for the transition,” said Rodecker. “Currently, search results on the typical Google Everything search are unchanged and the Google Places algorithm runs strong in this user interface; something we already optimize for.”

Want more information on the Google+ Local release? Check out this round-up of articles on Google+ Local on Screenwerk.com.