It seems Google has disabled local reviews functionality for both consumers AND business owners. SterlingSky’s Jason Brown first flagged this issue on Friday. Joy Hawkins, also of SterlingSky, added, “Any review responses posted right now aren’t publishing live. Same thing with leaving new reviews. None of the reviews I left 5 min ago are publishing.” When asked […]
Two new features were introduced by Nextdoor earlier this week, both intending to support members during the coronavirus crisis. The first feature is called Nextoor Groups, while the second is called Help Map. The later feature lets people in an area indicate if they need help or whether they are available to help others who […]
On March 15, Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google, posted the actions Google is taking in response to the coronavirus outbreak. Some of the things includes Google Search and Maps showing if a place or business is temporarily closed. “In the coming days, we’ll make it possible for businesses to easily mark themselves as ‘temporarily closed’ using […]
Google called attention to changes in its Google My Business photo and video guidelines earlier this month. Local marketers are being told that all images or videos will now be reviewed before published. Google was asked by Barry Schwartz from Search Engine Land if this was a manual or machine-based review process. According to Google, […]
Google wants businesses to update their Google My Business listings if the business is affected by COVID-19. A new help document was posted by Google that describes businesses can update their business hours, phone numbers, business descriptions and/or use Google Posts to share more information. A notice has been placed at the top of the Google […]
On February 20, Google posted hot it is continuing to build up Maps with community content. According to the company, the myriad contributions made its over 120 million Local Guides. Google also spoke up about spam, which the company said is representing less than 1% of the 20 million daily contributions it receives on Maps. […]
Barry Schwartz sat down to talk to Rhea Drysdale, the CEO and co-founder of Outspoken Media. They spoke about running a business, managing all the small and large details around owning a small business. After that, she leveraged that knowledge and experience to save her clients money and resources with SEO. Hyperlocal was a topic of […]
Back in 2019, order online buttons were added to Google My Business (GMB) restaurant profiles and knowledge panels through partnerships with Grubhub, DoorDash, Postmates, Delivery.com, among others. These additions to GMB was apart of its evolution, which went from a static directory to a increasingly “transactional” platform. For consumers, this was meant to be convenient, […]
On February 11, Yelp announced a new “video-centric” ad format that the company is calling Showcase Ads, as well as in-store attribution: Yelp Store Visits (YSV). These offerings are aimed at national and multi-location brands. The company said that these products are designed in order to address “specific pain points of national and multi-location businesses.” […]
It has been reported that Facebook acquired UK augmented reality (AR) startup, Scape Technologies. It is estimated by TechCrunch that the purchase price might be about $40 million. The reason the purchase of this AR company is because Scape’s technology is about creating a 1:1 digital representation of the physical world. It’s both about mapping […]