WebProNews

Tag: Local

  • Amazon Launches Restaurant Delivery Service

    Amazon Launches Restaurant Delivery Service

    Back in June, while I was on vacation, there were reports about Amazon readying the launch of a food takeout service. This followed earlier reports that the company was working on a new local services offering, and was said to be a smaller part of that larger endeavor.

    Today, TechCrunch is reporting that the takeout service has gone live within the Amazon Local app, but only for about 20 restaurants in the Seattle area. While Amazon hasn’t made any formal announcements that we’ve seen, you can actually find the service on the web with a simple Google search here.

    The offering lets you choose between takeout and delivery options. You can browse restaurants, and place orders right from the site/app.

    “From Pizza to Sushi, find a variety of your favorite neighborhood restaurants,” Amazon says. “Get your food delivered or order takeout by paying with your secure Amazon account. Enjoy the food and our service. If you ever need us, we’re available 24/7.”

    As others like TechCrunch have pointed out, this gives Amazon a way to compete with services like Seamless, Grubhub, and DeliveryHero. Uber recently entered the food delivery space as well, just as it got into grocery delivery, which Amazon is also experimenting with.

    Image via Amazon

  • Yelp Names Top 20 Cities For Local Holiday Shopping

    Yelp has put together its top 20 list for cities to shop local for the holidays.

    The company recently commissioned a survey from Nielsen to find out about people’s plans for local holiday shopping. It found that eight in ten Americans intend to shop local for the holidays this year.

    To come up with the top 20 list, Yelp says it analyzed millions of reviews and business listings to determine the best cities in the U.S. It includes those with the largest concentration of highly-rated, local businesses where shoppers can find gifts. Here’s the list:

    1. Portland, ME
    2. Lawrence, KS
    3. St. Petersburg, FL
    4. Asheville, NC
    5. Santa Cruz, CA
    6. Detroit, MI
    7. Bend, OR
    8. Chapel Hill, NC
    9. Wilmington, NC
    10. Hoboken, NJ
    11. Minneapolis, MN
    12. Portland, OR
    13. Frederick, MD
    14. Flagstaff, AZ
    15. New Orleans, LA
    16. Worcester, MA
    17. Savannah, GA
    18. Providence, RI
    19. Seattle, WA
    20. Baltimore, MD

    Here’s an infogrpahic Yelp released earlier this month, which features additional findings from the survey:

    Image via Yelp

  • Yelp Reviews Say More Than You Realized

    Yelp reviews can have a tremendous impact – for better or for worse – on a business. They can dictate whether or not a customer decides to visit. This is one of the reasons the site/app is so controversial with businesses. There may actually be more to reviews than meets the eye, however.

    Do believe Yelp reviews have any significant impact on your business? Let us know in the comments.

    Yelp has been offering researchers access to its data in the form of the Yelp Dataset Challenge, which includes data from Phoenix, Las Vegas, Madison, Waterloo, and Edinburgh. It’s made up of data from 42,153 businesses, 320,002 business attributes, 31,617 check-in sets, 252,898 users, 955,999 edge social graph, 403,210 tips, and 1,125,458 reviews.

    With the challenge, Yelp has been calling on academics to break ground in research with its data. Explaining the challenge, Yelp says:

    How well can you guess a review’s rating from its text alone? Can you take all of the reviews of a business and predict when it will be the most busy, or when the business is open? Can you predict if a business is good for kids? Has Wi-Fi? Has Parking? What makes a review useful, funny, or cool? Can you figure out which business a user is likely to review next? How much of a business’s success is really just location, location, location? What businesses deserve their own subcategory (i.e., Szechuan or Hunan versus just “Chinese restaurants”), and can you learn this from the review text? What makes a tip useful? What are the differences between the cities in the dataset? There is a myriad of deep, machine learning questions to tackle with this rich dataset.

    Researchers from Yahoo took Yelp up on the challenge, utilizing 200,000 of the available reviews to look at social signals that can be gleaned from Yelp, which can provide a better understanding of consumers’ interactions with businesses on the popular review site. As they note, Yelp isn’t just about the actual reviews.

    In a blog post, Yahoo Labs researchers Saeideh Bakhshi, David A. Shamma, and Partha Kanuparthy write:

    People on Yelp also log in and express their opinions, not as reviews, but as votes on reviews. In effect, it’s a higher granularity than a Flickr “favorite” or a Facebook “like,” as Yelpers cast their votes with the distinct sentiments of cool, funny, and/or useful. These votes are three kinds of “likes”; they are a minimal social signal that many online sites use for communication and recommendation. The three options that Yelp offers lets one investigate the implied meanings carried by these sentiments more accurately than many other social networks. But there’s something more here. In aggregate, a random person on Yelp might carry a running total of votes they have cast, including 469 useful votes, 192 cool votes, and 260 funny votes. The same could hold true for a venue. We began to wonder if we could understand something more from these votes; are they indicative of particular emotions? Do the votes represent some fingerprint of a Yelper or of an establishment?

    They found that the way people vote on reviews (including the sentiment of the text) has a relationship with the tone of the text and the text’s rating, depending on vote type. They say there is deeper meaning in signals like “cool,” “useful,” and “funny,” than those labels suggest.

    “While many would be correct in associating the useful and funny votes as representing reviews with the most amount of information or humor they contain, these signals are actually a proxy for negativity in reviews,” the researchers say. “A cool vote is more ambiguous in its meaning, but clearly associates with more positive reviews. Understanding these votes, or signals, and how they affect ratings can better inform customers as they come across reviews and take them into account for their own purposes; ultimately, they could alter one’s perception of a business, for better or worse.”

    The main takeaways are as follows:

    • Reviews that were voted useful and/or funny tended to have lower user ratings and generally carry a negative tone.
    • Reviews deemed to be cool by users tend to have a positive tone and higher user ratings.
    • Reviews written by members who are active for longer periods of time tend to receive more votes. Readers tend to prefer long and objective reviews.

    You can read the full research paper here. There is also some follow-up research available here.

    Have you ever considered the impact of how non-reviewing Yelp users are contributing to your business’ reputation by their interactions with existing reviews? Does it make a significant difference in your opinion? Share your thoughts in the comments.

    Images via Yelp, Yahoo

  • Facebook Has A New Directory For Local Places

    Facebook has an interesting new local search and discovery tool available at Facebook.com/places. It gives users a look at places with Facebook pages, including those your friends have been to (with their comments) and others who have left reviews.

    The directory lets you browse through restaurants, hotels, bars, cafes, public attractions, arts & entertainment, gyms, movie theaters, schools, theaters, grocery stores, and landmarks.

    It also points you to more cities nearby.

    When you click to view all of any category, you’re directed to Graph Search results for that category in that city.

    Given Facebook’s current strategy of releasing standalone mobile apps, I wouldn’t be surprised to see some version of this make for such a release in the near future.

    Via Search Engine Land

    Image via Facebook

  • Apple Gives Business Local Listing Tool For Maps

    Apple launched a new way for businesses to verify listings on Apple Maps – Apple Maps Connect. Between the popularity of Apple devices and the company’s increasingly independence from Google services, it’s probably a good idea to make sure you appear there.

    First, you have to have an AppleID to log in. Then, you’re prompted to add your business. It then tells you it will use your updates to improve Apple Maps for users and partners.

    It will then prompt you to search, and see if your business is already on Apple Maps. If not, you can proceed. You will enter your relationship to the business, and the phone number and address info. Then, it will give you the option to verify with a phone call. After that, you’ll confirm the actual location by dragging a pin on a map over the correct building.

    After you confirm that, you’ll add the business to one to three categories. If you can’t find an appropriate category, you can suggest one. Then, you’ll confirm your open hours. After that, you can add links to your website, your Facebook Page, your Yelp Page, and/or your Twitter account. The links will be used to validate the business and collect more info, Apple informs you.

    Once you complete all of that, you can review the information, and submit it to Apple.

    The service is reportedly only available for U.S. businesses for the time being with more countries coming soon.

    Images via Apple

  • Groupon Wants To Get Your Business Found In The Search Engines

    Groupon announced what it’s referring to as a “bold initiative to build a page that lives on Groupon and search engines for almost every local business in the United States.”

    The initiative is called Groupon Pages, and is essentially business listings on Groupon, but those that should turn up in a search on Google or Bing, not entirely unlike Yelp pages.

    “By giving local businesses access to the millions of people that search our marketplace, we’re dramatically increasing the number of merchants on Groupon and providing our customers with yet another reason to always check Groupon first,” a spokesperson for the company tells WebProNews in an email.

    We’ll see if the search engines think these are the pages consumers should be checking first.

    “We’ve already built more than 7 million pages and collected more than 20 million validated ratings and helpful tips from real customers to highlight the unique aspects of these local businesses,” they add. “Ex. There might be 10 sushi restaurants in the Lincoln Park neighborhood of Chicago. (There are probably more.) We’re still going to show you the four places where we’re currently running a Groupon deal, but we’re also going to show you ratings, tips, money-saving opportunities and other useful information for the other six businesses.”

    The company says it’s leveraging its “vast knowledge and experience in local commerce” to create transactional spaces for merchants, where people can also find deals, which can influence their purchases.

    Merchants can claim a page, and manage its content. The pages can be personalized, and can include links, business hours, phone numbers, addresses, photos, and testimonials. Merchants can publish specials, coupons, and promotions.

    Groupon will provide feedback to businesses based on surveys they send out every time customers redeem deals or claim merchant coupons/specials. The pages let merchants directly engage with customers who leave feedback, which can be helpful whether it’s positive or negative.

    On the consumer side, people can follow specific merchants, and get updates about them, including new deals. They can also request deals. If enough people request one for a business that isn’t running a deal, Groupon will reach out to the merchant to try to come up with one.

    People can also use business pages to recommend the business to others and leave tips. They can even earn verified status.

    The most beneficial part of all of this for businesses may be increased search visibility, assuming Google ranks these pages favorably, which seems like a real possibility.

    Image via BusinessWire

  • Facebook Announces Local Awareness Ads

    Facebook Announces Local Awareness Ads

    Facebook announced a new ad product for local businesses called Local Awareness ads. These let businesses find new customers by showing ads to groups of people who are near that business’s neighborhood.

    “Local awareness ads are built to be more cost-effective than traditional advertising channels like newspaper while offering more precise targeting and greater reach,” the company explains. “We think they’re the best way for local businesses to reach people near them, and the best way for people who use Facebook to discover more useful things in their area.”

    “After creating an ad, a Page owner can simply enter their business’s address and the radius around which they’d like to reach, and Facebook will use that information in order to create an audience comprised of people who live in that area, or were recently near the business,” a spokesperson for Facebook explains in an email. “For more precise targeting, marketers can also choose the age and gender of their audience. And with convenient call-to-action options such as ‘Get Directions’ or ‘Like Page,’ business owners are able to easily prompt ad engagement.

    Local Awareness ads will begin rolling out via the Ads Create tool and API over the coming weeks. They’ll only be available in the U.S. at first, but Facebook says a global launch will come within months.

    Image via Facebook

  • Tool Claims To Show Google Search Bias

    Tool Claims To Show Google Search Bias

    As recently reported, Yelp has formed a coalition (not entirely unlike the FairSearch Coalition) with other Google critics/competitors Consumer Watchdog, Jameda, HolidayCheck, TripAdvisor, and Fight for the Future. The group launched the site Focus on the User, which comes with a downloadable Chrome extension to show you how Google “manipulates” search results to inject its own content and reviews from Google+, even when results from some of the aforementioned competitors would be more relevant (at least according to said competitors).

    Does Google unfairly manipulate its search results in your opinion? Let us know in the comments.

    In another article, we looked at how Google is injecting more and more direct “answers” into its search results, and how these answers have varying degrees of accuracy, and have the potential to send less traffic to third-party websites, which it’s actually getting these answers from in many cases.

    Google has said time and time again, however, that it focuses on users, not websites. Yelp and its cohorts are therefore using that mantra as their angle for this new Google criticism initiative, which comes as the EU awaits new concessions from the search giant to quell so-called anti-competition concerns. In fact, the tagline on the site’s homepage is: “Google+ is hurting the Internet. Europeans have the power to stop it.”

    Here’s the introduction video.

    The video demonstrates the Chrome extension, which claims to “turn on” the main Google algorithm within local Onebox results, so that these results show what the algorithm actually deems the most relevant, which (you guessed it) tends to be things from the competitors and not Google+.

    “You might think that Google gives you the best answers from across the web when you search for something as important as a pediatrician in Munich, a bicycle repair shop in Copenhagen, or a hotel in Madrid,” the site says. “But Google doesn’t actually use its normal organic search algorithm to produce the responses to this question that you see prominently on the first screen. Instead, it promotes a more limited set of results drawn from Google+ ahead of the more relevant ones you would get from using Google’s organic search algorithm.”

    The group says it has tested the tool’s results with thousands of users, and that all of the info in the demo comes from Google itself. It also shares this piece of anecdotal evidence:

    When you search for “hotel berlin” today, Google.co.uk injects a map on the right side of the screen showing locations of Berlin hotels. Having a map appear for local searches makes sense. But rather than connecting the map pins to HolidayCheck, a leading hotel review provider founded in Germany, the map is hard-coded to Google+’s review ecosystem. This clearly doesn’t produce the most relevant results, as HolidayCheck almost always ranks higher than Google+ content according to Google’s own relevance ranker. You can see this for yourself by trying a simple test. Perform a search on Google for [hotel berlin (site:holidaycheck.de OR site:plus.google.com)]. Limiting the search to only these two review ecosystems makes it possible to see how they rank comparatively according to Google’s own relevance-based general search algorithm.

    The results are rather shocking: for that query, Google’s general search algorithm thinks HolidayCheck has over 370 results that are more relevant than the most relevant result from Google+. But Google still gives Google+ preferential placement in search results.

    The FAQ portion of the group’s website is where it really makes its arguments against known Google defenses about such criticisms.

    For example, it’s Google’s site. Shouldn’t it be able to do whatever it wants?

    “Most of the time yes, but not if Google is acting anti-competitively by abusing its dominant position in organic search to tie its vertical search products, depriving consumers of relevant results, stifling competition and impairing innovation,” it says. “Consumers need to be able to access competitive sources of information from across the web; by tying its own vertical search products to organic search results, Google prevents this.”

    A common defense from Google is that competition is only a click away. And it is. There’s no real argument for this in my opinion. Users don’t have to use Google, which is a free service just like its competitors. There is absolutely nothing stopping consumers from going to Yelp, TripAdvisor, or any of these other services, and skipping Google altogether.

    The group’s response to this says, “Google has an overwhelming and very durable share of the European organic search market. This market share has an important effect on conditioning user behavior, masking alternative sources of information, and raising the costs (e.g., time and effort) to switch to other sources of information.

    “Using a search engine might be simple. But running a search engine is highly complex and offers many dials and levers that impact user behavior. A company like Google knows that it can degrade quality to a certain point before consumers leave in droves. Google has made an art of predicting user behavior and knowing how much change users will tolerate before switching to another organic search service.”

    The real question in all of this is whether or not that’s a valid argument. Should Google be punished for being good at knowing what they have to do to keep people using their product while also doing things that help their product? Isn’t that basically what running a business is about?

    Interestingly, the relevance of Google+ is also among the FAQ with the question being: “I’ve read that Google+ is a failure. Is this even still relevant?”

    The answer from the FAQ is that it’s being used to “unify and draw data from different Google products” and that Google uses the brand to build products for local businesses.

    Its interesting that this thing is apparently spearheaded by Yelp, yet it didn’t announce it on its blog, and the demo and examples don’t really focus on Yelp content, which is itself frequently criticized by businesses and users alike (not to mention shareholders). On its most recent earnings call, Yelp pointed out that a Google algorithm change increased U.S. Yelp traffic, though international traffic declined month-over-month despite being up 80% year-over-year.

    This new effort from Yelp and its peers is focused specifically on Europe.

    Should Google be forced to change the way it serves local results in the way that Focus on the User is illustrating? Should Google be able to serve the results however it wants? Share your thoughts in the comments.

  • Google Expands Local Inventory Ads

    Google announced the expansion of its local inventory ads to additional countries and formats. The ads are now available in the UK, France, Germany, Japan, and Australia.

    “More and more people turn to search to plan their local shopping trips,” says product manager Christina Ilvento. “In fact, 83% of shoppers would be more likely to visit a store if they could check the availability of an item online beforehand. Since we launched local inventory ads in the US last fall, many savvy retailers have taken advantage of the opportunity to promote their store items to nearby shoppers on Google.”

    “We have also expanded support for store-only products and campaigns to desktop devices, enabling retailers to promote stores to the right customers at the right time,” Ilvento says. “For example, you can prioritize showing local products to get shoppers in your doors during the weeks and days leading up to the holidays. As items go out of stock online and last-minute shipping costs increase, retailers who can provide cost-effective, quick in-store purchase options stand out in the crowd.”

    Google has a participation overview for local inventory ads available here. This discusses eligibility, how they work.

    There’s also a form you can fill out here if you’re interested in signing up to use the ads.

  • Report: SMB Local Media Spending To Surpass $50B Next Year

    BIA/Kelsey is estimating that spending on local media by SMBs will reach $50.4 billion in 2015 at 35.8% of total local media spending. SMBs, it says, will allocate $37.7 billion of their local media spend to traditional media and $12.4 billion to digital.

    According to the firm, national brands will spend $50.5 billion on local media in 2015, and will make up 35.9% of total local media spending. An additional $39.8 billion in local media spending will come from local brands that aren’t SMBs, it says.

    SMBs, national brands, and non-SMB local businesses will each increase their local media spend by double-digit percentages, the report says.

    BIA/Kelsey intends to present its findings later this month, offering the full edition of its forecast, which will cover twelve media segments, including: newspapers, radio, over-the-air TV, cable TV, out-of-home, direct mail, directories, magazines, online, mobile and social.

    It will issue the forecast on the first day of the Leading in Local: SMB Digital Marketing conference, which starts on September 22nd. The timing for the annual forecast has been moved from the spring to the fall.

    Image via PR Newswire

  • Yelp Launches Mobile Review Translation On iPhone

    Yelp announced the launch of automated review translation in its iPhone app. They offer reviews in fifteen languages in 27 countries. As the company continues to expand internationally, this will only become more important.

    The app makes use of Bing Translator (you didn’t think they were going to go with Google, did you?), and lets you tap to translate a single review or all reviews.

    “Although machine-translation is not perfect, it’s a fantastic resource for understanding the overall meaning and context of a review that would otherwise be unavailable to a Yelper who does not speak that language,” says Yelp international product manager Stepanie T. “Use this feature to get a general idea of a reviewer’s experience, but understand that some details may be lost in translation.”

    “Yelp has always given both locals and travelers alike the ability to find the best hidden gems through the knowledge of the Yelp global community, and mobile review translation makes that even easier,’ she adds. “This tool also gives local businesses that are a bit off the beaten path a better chance to be discovered by travelers. Sounds like a win-win situation to us!”

    Yelp supports English, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, German, Spanish, Italian, Norwegian, French, Polish, Portuguese, Swedish, Turkish, and Japanese.The translation feature will come to its Android app soon.

    Image via Yelp

  • Foursquare Tells Businesses Its New App Is Better For Them Too

    As you may know, Foursquare launched its new check-in-less app today. If you want a rundown on what to expect as a user, read this.

    Given that the focus of Foursquare has shifted from check-ins to local search, you can imagine that it might have some implications for small businesses. Naturally, the company is telling businesses that the new app is not only better for users, but better for them.

    “It learns what you like, and leads you to places you’ll love,” the company says in a blog post. “For local businesses like yours, this is perfect: the new app is even better at connecting your business with customers who will love what you have to offer.”

    “Connect with customers when it’s most relevant,” it adds. “Do people rave about your fish tacos or your scenic views? Your affordable prices or your specialty items? We’ll highlight those things to people who have told us they love them. Best of all, they’ll learn of them through the tips left by your happy customers.”

    As noted in our previous article on the app, tips are a big part of the new experience. Luckily for businesses, they can write tips to tell users what they’re known for or what they do best. It shows up in a dedicated section of the business listing, where it will also display specials.

    In addition to the new look of Foursquare itself, the company is rolling out a redesign of tis business site. Foursquare says it has a community of nearly 2 million businesses.

    Images via Foursquare

  • Can Amazon Dominate Local Services Too?

    Can Amazon Dominate Local Services Too?

    There’s no question that Amazon dominates the online shopping landscape. By getting small businesses and local contractors on board, could it also dominate local services? It’s going to try.

    Do you see Amazon becoming the go-to place for local services such as installations and repairs? Share your thoughts in the comments.

    In June, we learned that Amazon was readying a local services marketplace, which would simultaneously compete with local review sites like Yelp and services from stores like Lowe’s and Home Depot. The news was originally reported by Reuters, which suggested Amazon users would be able to order babysitters and handymen with the service.

    Reuters now has a clearer picture of just what Amazon is working on, which it says it is testing in Seattle, New York, and Los Angeles. It also points to a Help & Customer service page on Amazon’s website, which gives further details.

    According to that page, Amazon Local Services allows users to purchase professional services for assembly, set-up, installation, and repair works. It doesn’t say anything about babysitting, but that would certainly appear to cover the handyman part. Other verticals could surely come later, if the initiative proves successful.

    This particular niche serves to let Amazon offer such services to customers who are already purchasing items that would require them. If you buy something on Amazon, it can suggest a local business to install it for you, for example. According to Reuters, the company has been working with such businesses for about two years.

    According to Amazon, all service providers are covered by its “A-to-z Guarantee,” are licensed and insured, and are background-checked. The company explains on that help page:

    Add a service to your cart and check out. Within one business day, the service professional will contact you to set an appointment. If the service is at your home, the service provider will contact you 24 hours prior to the appointment to confirm and 30 minutes before arrival. All services provided in-home require someone 18 years or older to be present during the entire appointment.

    There is no fee to cancel or reschedule an appointment but you will need to contact the service provider directly to do so. We encourage you to give the service provider at least 24 hours’ notice if you need to reschedule or cancel.

    All services must take place within 90 days of checkout. Any service not received after 90 days will be automatically canceled.

    After the work is complete, you will sign a Proof of Service document acknowledging the service has been completed and your payment will then be processed.

    Installation and repair services are currently available in three cities: Seattle, New York, and Los Angeles. More locations and services launching soon.

    As Reuters reports, Amazon will begin offering such services in more locations soon, and will take 20% of jobs under $1,000 and 15% of jobs over $1,000.

    Amazon Local Services doesn’t appear to be tied directly to Amazon Local, which focuses on deals, but it’s easy to imagine that it could be as the service gets going.

    This would be only one of several initiatives, which would see Amazon greatly expanding the way people receive goods and services. In April, the company unveiled Prime Pantry, a new grocery service that lets Prime members in available markets order from about 2,000 grocery products.That’s in addition to the Amazon Fresh same-day grocery delivery service the company operates.

    Amazon is also working on its own delivery network, which would make less reliant on services like UPS and FedEx. Then there’s that whole drone thing.

    Meanwhile, Amazon continues to build out its ecosystem to give consumers more windows into its universe, such as its recently launched music streaming and Kindle Unlimited offerings. The new Fire phone gives users an actual button that lets them point their phones at items, and quickly be able to buy them electronically. While the first incarnation of the device hasn’t been received all that well, it’s clear that the ecommerce giant is only starting to enter a whole new frontier of giving consumers new ways of buying and receiving products and services, while immersing them in a growing Amazon world.

    Amazon recently launched a new Wallet App, giving users the ability to store credit and debit cards as well as gift cards and loyalty cards. It’s also rumored to be readying a card reader for businesses to compete with Square.

    The company continues to offer new products to both consumers and businesses (which is part of the reason for its disappointing earnings report and shareholder anxiety), all aimed at getting people to buy more in more ways all through Amazon, which in the long run means more money in Amazon’s (and its shareholders’) pockets. That is if things go right.

    Can Amazon dominate offline commerce as well online? Let us know what you think.

    Image via Thinkstock

  • Google Update Hits Local Search Results

    Google Update Hits Local Search Results

    Google has reportedly launched a significant algorithm update that’s shaken up local search results in the United States quite a bit.

    Following a tip from Brian May on Twitter, local search watcher Mike Blumenthal reported on the “turmoil” in local search results.

    They were noticing missing 7 packs in real estate results.

    Search Engine Land also reported that Google confirmed an update, saying that it “ties deper into their web search capabilities, including the hundreds of ranking signals they use in web search, along with search features such as Knowledge Graph, spelling correction, synonyms, and more”.

    According them, the company also said it improves distance and location ranking parameters. They’re calling it the “Piegon” update just to give it a name, as Google has apparently not given it one.

    While those who lose rankings as a result of this will no doubt be irate, this is probably a good thing for users, as the rankings of local search results have always been questionable. If they can tap into all these other signals, it stands to reason that relevance should improve at least to some extent.

    This update comes as Google sees increased competition in the local search space from companies like Foursquare and Yelp. Google also recently made an update to its Google Maps mobile apps to make it easier for users to find places of interest. It has also added new ads to local search results.

    Image via Google

  • Yelp Reviews Are About To Appear In A Lot More Places

    Yelp announced some big news late on Tuesday. They’ve increased the call limit on their API to 25,000 per day, and made it easier for developers to use, in addition to opening it up to all developers for free. In other words, anyone who wants to use Yelp data in their apps or website can now do so easily, without cost, and pull enough data to make actual useful Yelp-related features.

    For Yelp, this means that it’s likely to see a big increase in the visibility of its content and its ads. For businesses, it means more people than ever are going to be exposed to reviews – positive and negative. Let the fun begin.

    Is increased exposure of Yelp reviews good or bad for businesses? Tell us what you think.

    Yelp has been pretty protective of its data, and today it has more competitors than ever. This, of course, includes Google, which has pretty much become its sworn enemy. Google used to use Yelp’s (and other sources’) reviews in its product in a way that essentially passed them off as Google’s own. Things have changed on that front, but Yelp still doesn’t think Google plays fair, and recently became an official complainant in a lengthy antitrust probe into the search giant’s business practices.

    “I truly fear the landscape for innovation in Europe is infertile, and this is a direct result of the abuses Google has undertaken with its dominant position,” Yep CEO Jeremy Stoppelman told European Commission chief José Manuel Barroso in a letter. “While I laud the important work of your office and Vice-President Kroes in ensuring Europe is able to tap into the economic opportunity that the Internet industry is unleashing, it is my strong belief that such potential cannot be realized unless every possible step is taken to prevent abuse by dominant firms.”

    Either way, opening up its API like it is should help Yelp better compete with everyone. It already has a significant brand, and when that and its content are plastered all over the place, that brand is bound to gain significance in consumers’ eyes. Yelp has already been integrated into some key places, including iOS, Mac OS X, Yahoo’s local search results, and the Pebble smartwatch.

    “Thousands of companies have used Yelp’s API to build local information into their products and services, giving consumers even more access to great Yelp content, like Yelp review snippets, photos, ratings and business listing information,” says Yelp VP Business & Corporate Development Mike Ghaffary. “Developers have turned to Yelp because of our trusted, high-quality local data, which, through an empirical study, is shown to be more reliable and consistent than other sources of local data.”

    Not everybody’s convinced that Yelp’s data is so reliable, but the study Ghaffary refers to is discussed in more detail by the company here. The study was done by Yelp itself, with findings presented back in November. It looked at how Yelp data “stacks up against the competition,” but looked at photos, and not reviews. The company said the reason for this was that not all the sites it looked at have the same concept of reviews, and it needed a measure of content that is comparable across sites. It also looked at business names, addresses, phone numbers, websites, dupes, and locations. Here are the stats:

    Yelp director of search Jason Fennell said at the time:

    There are a few things of note. First, TripAdvisor and Yellowbook do not have listings in some categories/geographies so they have a smaller set of samples. Second, fewer listings had websites than other types of data. This is at least partly because not all businesses have websites, so the maximum is less than 100%. Finally, one downside of our approach to scoring is that a missing listing gives you credit for not having a duplicate. This flaw in scoring combined with a fairly large number of listings outside of TripAdvisor’s main area of focus—79 Shopping businesses in Dublin, Ireland for example—likely inflate TripAdvisor’s “No Dupes” score.

    The high-level story is that in terms of listing data Yelp and Google are closely matched and ahead of the other competition. Google wins out on finding business websites, which isn’t surprising given that crawling the web is part of its core business. On the other hand, Yelp is well ahead of Google in terms of photo content.

    Clearly Yelp has some helpful data to offer developers beyond the reviews themselves, which will give them all the more reason to utilize the API, but it’s also going to mean greater access to those controversial reviews, and this is what businesses already critical of Yelp (and there are a lot of them) may be concerned with.

    You probably know the story by now. Some businesses think Yelp is sabotaging their listings by burying positive reviews, sometimes accusing them of holding said reviews hostage if they don’t spend advertising dollars. We’ve seen such accusations come up time and time again for years, though nobody’s ever been able to offer any real evidence of this happening.

    There is also always the concern about fake reviews. Yelp appears to do its best to weed these out, but just how successful they’ve been is anybody’s guess. Every so often they provide updates about adding consumer alerts for businesses they catch “red-handed,” but there’s no real confirmation that they’re catching all the fake stuff.

    There is almost certainly a number of reviews that while not completely fake are misleading at best, or exaggerated by angry customers or people that frankly don’t really know what they’re talking about. That’s why celebrity Andrew Zimmern called Yelp reviews “worthless”.

    Regardless, they’re about to be much more prevalent throughout the web and mobile app ecosystems, which will probably also lead to more of them being written in the first place – especially now that people can leave reviews from the phones.

    Oh, and just so you know, people are trusting the reviews they read online more than ever. A recent study from BrightLocal found not only that people are turing to online reviews for local businesses more and more, but 88% say they trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations. That’s actually up from 79% last year. Only 13% said they don’t trust reviews as much.

    Are you glad to see Yelp’s API open and expanded to any app that wants to take advantage? Let us know in the comments.

  • Google Maps For iOS Gets An Update

    Yelp has been complaining about trying to compete with Google for years now, but recently, it became an official complainant against the company in its ongoing antitrust case in the EU.

    With that, Yelp must love Google’s new Google Maps app for iOS, which appears to go after Yelp even harder than before.

    Here’s what’s listed in the “what’s new” section on iTunes:

    – Search results appear with descriptions right on the map, to help you make choices quickly
    
- View search results on the map or in a list and easily switch between them
    – See your reservations and events from Gmail labeled on the map

    – Try the improved Explore, a local guide that shows you different places and activities depending on the location and time of day

    As Greg Sterling at Search Engine Land points out, it the app also enables you to filter search results in categories like hotels, restaurants, etc. It even lets you do this with categories as specific as “landscaper”.

    The more specific it can get, the more useful it’s going to be when you’re looking for a specific type of business, giving users less reason to have other apps (like Yelp) on their phones or tablets, as most will have Google Maps installed anyway.

    Image via iTunes

  • Amazon Reportedly Readying Local Services Marketplace

    Amazon is reportedly going to launch a new local services marketplace later in the year, which would simultaneously compete with review sites like Yelp and home improvement chains like Lowe’s and Home Depot.

    This is according to Reuters, which cites several people familiar with the matter, and says they’ll test it in one market before rolling it out throughout the U.S. They’ve reportedly already reached out to some Seattle and San Francisco-area business (some in the home repair market).

    This would be only one of several initiatives, which would see Amazon greatly expanding the way people receive goods and services. In April, the company unveiled Prime Pantry, a new grocery service that lets Prime members in available markets order from about 2,000 grocery products.

    That’s in addition to the Amazon Fresh same-day grocery delivery service the company operates.

    It was also recently reported that the company is working on its own delivery network, which would make less reliant on services like UPS and FedEx. Then there’s that whole drone thing.

    CEO Jeff Bezos said in April that Amazon is working on its 7th and 8th-generation models of Amazon Prime Air drones.

    Adding local businesses into the mix will only make Amazon more all encompassing. Last month, by the way, they added Sunday delivery to fifteen more locations.

    You can get a lot of things on Amazon as it is. Soon, you’ll be able to add babysitters and handymen to the list, if Reuters’ report holds water.

    It’s unclear if the new service would tie into Amazon’s existing Amazon Local service, which focuses on deals.

    Image via Amazon

  • Here’s A Look At Groupon’s Square Competitor Gnome

    Groupon announced the launch of a point-of-sale hardware solution for local businesses called Gnome. It would compete with Square Stand/Register.

    According to the company, the tablet stand will enable merchants to instantly recognize Groupon customers as they enter the store, and let them redeem Groupons. The solution will integrate with accounting programs like QuickBooks and Exero, and offer CRM tools, including the ability to customize marketing campaigns based on purchase history, and share customer feedback on social media. It will also let businesses respond to customer inquiries/comments.

    CEO Eric Lefkofsky said, ‘“Gnome is an amazing piece of technology that plugs our merchants into the Web and helps them form relationships with every customer that walks in their front door. When it’s complete, Gnome will serve as an operating system for merchants to run their entire operation and enable them to create real-time promotions that bring customers into their business when they need them the most.”

    “Gnome is an important step towards our long-term mission of creating a world where merchants are constantly connected to the Groupon local commerce platform,” he added.

    Groupon redemption happens automatically using bluetooth, or customers can be searched for by name, barcode, or voucher number. Customers won’t need to have printed vouchers.

    It logs cash transactions, accepts credit and debit card payments, and prints or emails receipts. It also calculates multiple tax rates, manages menu items, lets you view transaction history, and enables you to issue refunds. It even comes with preloaded menus and inventory lists for popular types of businesses. Ir comes with 24/7 live support.

    Gnome will roll out to “tens of thousands” of merchants in the coming months.

    Image via BusinessWire

  • Google Adds Location Management Features For Businesses

    Google is rolling out new features for the bulk management tool for Google Places. These include status of your locations on Maps, an updated data conflicts interface, an improved edit timeframe, automatically-enabled social features, and new functionality for manager addition/removal and location removal.

    Jade Wang announced the features earlier this week in the Google and Your Business product forum (via Search Engine Land).

    The majority of the features will be rolling out over the course of the coming weeks, but the social features, and manager addition/removal and location removal features should already be available.

    For status of your locations on Maps, Google will display a column that describes the status of each location on Maps, and says you’ll be able to tell “at a glance” which locations are live, unverified, have errors or data conflicts, are duplicates, or are pending review.

    Regarding the updated data conflicts interface, Wang says, “The updated interface will show you details on how a location page might differ on Maps/Search results versus what’s in your dashboard. We’ll show you what is live on Google, and which field is different from what’s in your dashboard. From there, you’ll be able to take action.”

    She says they’re also working on improving the speed with which your data goes live on Google.

    Google has made each location in upgraded and verified accounts have social features automatically enabled. To use these features (like making a post), hover over “Live” in the status column, and click on the Google+ icon.

    “Each location and its corresponding plus page can now only have one verified owner,” says Wang. “This ensures that multiple verified users for the same location are not automatically overwriting each other’s business information.The owner will be able to give manager access to other accounts, if they want to share responsibilities of updating data or posting social content. They can add or remove managers for a particular location by selecting that location and then clicking on Add managers.”

    Those who are owners, and no longer wish to be, can transfer ownership to another user by hovering over the location, and clicking on the manager icon. Those who aren’t owners, and don’t want to be managers, can simply remove the location from their account by selecting location, clicking the trash icon, and then “stop managing”.

    “If you see a location in your account that has Owner conflict, it means that another user account is verified for this business location in Google Places,” says Wang. “You can request to be a manager of the location by selecting that location and then clicking on Request management. If the verified owner of the page adds your account as a manager, you will see a new entry in your dashboard that will show with a status of Live. You can then remove the duplicate location from your dashboard.”

    Finally, if you’re the owner of a Google+ page, you may see a new step when you’re removing the location from your account. Click the “remove” link, and follow the steps from there. Removing a location wont’ necessarily remove it from Google Maps.

    Image via Google

  • Yelp Calls On Small Businesses To Help Them Come Up With Ideas

    Yelp has put a call out for new members of the Yelp Small Business Advisory Council. Any local business owner is encouraged to apply.

    Members participate in an annual summit at Yelp’s headquarter, provide input on products under development, brainstorm new ideas for company executives to consider, and serve as a resource for other business owners who have questions about Yelp’s various offerings.

    “Yelp’s features and services for small business owners have evolved quite a bit over the last four years thanks, in part, to the efforts of Yelp’s Small Business Advisory Council (YSBAC),” says Yelp’s Darnell Holloway. “Since 2010 we’ve regularly met with and solicited feedback from this diverse group of business owners who are selected to represent the greater community of local businesses on Yelp.”

    Yelp says council members have helped it come up with Yelp Metrics, business owner review comments on mobile, the revenue estimate tool, the activity feed, and some performance-based advertising options.

    You can apply here.

    Image: Yelp

  • Google: People Expect Search Ads To Be Locally Relevant

    Google: People Expect Search Ads To Be Locally Relevant

    Google is sharing some new research on local search from Ipsos MediaCT and Purchased, which the search giant commissioned in order to get a better grasp on consumers’ local search behavior.

    The research looks at over 5,000 people, who completed an online survey or logged their smartphone search and in-store activities in a mobile diary.

    “Here’s what we learned,” says Bao Lam, Performance Ads Product Marketing Manager at Google. “People expect search ads to be relevant to their context and location. If they search for ‘car rental’ or ‘Mexican restaurant,’ they prefer ads that are customized to where they happen to be and that help them take the next steps in their shopping journey.”

    76% of participants said they search for local info using a computer or tablet from home, with 24% saying they do so from work, and 18% saying they do from hotels or motels. For smartphones, the numbers are: 53% from home, 51% on the go, and 41% from stores and malls.

    “More than 60% of consumers say they’ve used ads with location information like address, directions, phone number or a click-to-call button,” says Lam. “And, more than 70% of consumers who have used location information in ads say that information is important. Consumers choose stores close to where they happen to be. 72% of consumers who searched for local information on their smartphone visited a store within 5 miles.”

    You can find the full report here.

    Image via Google