Category: Google Maps

When you go to Google Maps on desktop and place your cursor over a business listing, Google will overlay more details on that business. If you then move your cursor over the business images, you can navigate through the images in a carousel format.
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Google has now removed the site manager role or user rights level for Google My Business users. Now I see three levels; (1) primary owner, (2) owner and (3) manager. Google sent out emails notifying about the removal of the “site manager” role going …

Back in June Google said you will be able to add Google Posts directly from the Google search results page. I suspect that went live shortly after the announcement on mobile and maybe desktop, but maybe it didn’t and I missed it. It may or may not be…

If you search for [restaurants near me] in Google Search mobile or desktop, you will see the local three pack and map but you won’t see buttons to call the restaurant or directions or a way to order online. You will not see any call to action buttons…

Google now has a notice when you add Google Posts in Google My Business that those posts can appear not just on Google properties but third-party sites. Claire Carlile posted a screenshot of Google notifying her of this and asked on Twitter “which thir…

Google now may decide to review your Google My Business product uploads manually and approve or reject those. Usama Ali posted screenshots on Twitter of the this happening for his product uploads.

I can sometimes be naive when it comes to some differences between the USA and the rest of the world. One example is spelling curbside and kerbside. Honestly, I think spelling it kerbside is way cooler and so does other countries like Australia.
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Google seems to be testing a new way of showing reviews in the local listing for some businesses. Brandon Schmidt spotted Google showing not just the number of reviews with the review summary in stars, but where Google labels if the reviews are “from…

Google has confirmed that it did not make changes to its Google My Business reviews policies despite the SEC rule change. Google told Colan Nielsen, “the policies currently applied to Google Reviews do not differ for different business types or catego…

Google is showing in the local pack for some of the business listings that show their local inventory, if that inventory information was updated today. A label next to the product item would say “updated today.”

Google is now requiring some businesses to add a physical address and not be a service area business in Google My Business. Google told Stefan Somborac that this is a “new feature is an automated, anti-spam protection designed to reduce category misuse…

Google’s local pack user interface and design tests have been a bit whacky over the past several days. Google is now showing a super sparse looking local pack for bus rental types of queries. Google is just showing the directions button, there is no …

Google seems to be testing a new attribute or label for displaying local business listings. The new label is named “areas served” and shows you what regional areas that business serves.

Google added sustainability and eco certifications to the top of the hotel listing attributes options. Nevena Ivanova spotted this and shared the screenshot below on Twitter. Nevena wrote “Sustainability and Eco certifications were added to the top o…

Google seems to be testing displaying the map on the right side of the local pack. Normally the map is on the top, above the local pack listings. But here in this test, Google is placing it on the right side of the local listings.

Google announced a bunch of new map features the other day, one of which is allowing users/searchers to leave more detailed reviews for the restaurants they visit. Google has been testing more detailed reviews for some time but now it is officially liv…

Nevena Ivanova shared a screenshot of her seeing that Google Posts are now working for her hospitality clients. Google Posts work on most Google My Business listings but hotel and hospitality is a different beast. I don’t think it works for all hospit…

Google My Business offers support options on their web site and now it may even show you the hours of operation for those support channels. Here is a screen shot from Usama Ali on Twitter showing this support feature.

Have you ever seen Google show a set of local pack results in the web search results but without displaying a map with it? Likely not. Well, Justin Moseback noticed it and shared some screenshots of this on Twitter.

Google is testing, I think again, showing a Google phone number, instead of the actual business’s real phone number, in the business local listing in Google Search. In this example, Google is showing both numbers actually but lists the Google number fi…