Google Maps Now Shows Weather!

A couple weeks ago Google Maps added a new feature that shows you the weather for any location in the world.  To check it out, go to http://maps.google.com and type in the name of the location you want to look…
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Google Places Showing More Photos for Branded Searches

Google Places recently made a change which shows more photos if you do a search for a particular local business.  In this example, there are three photos displayed on Google for this business instead of the typical 1.

Yet Another Change to Reviews on Google Places

We’ve seen tons of changes to the way Google is displaying reviews for small businesses.  This morning, another one surfaced.  As you can see with this Phoenix auto insurance company, Google is now listing the reviews as “Google Reviews” vs.…
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10 Things about Facebook you didn’t know

Only 15% of small business fans are actually in the city where the business is located 1 Facebook fan equals 20 additional visits to your website each year. 32.9% of online consumers rate Facebook pages influential, 16.7% rate them very…
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Huge Changes to the Way Reviews are Displayed on Google Places

There were some pretty major changes yesterday to the way that Google is displaying reviews on Google Places pages. 3rd Party Reviews Changes Previously, if you had reviews posted on online directories like Judy’sBook, Local.com or Yelp, these reviews would…
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Another Reason why we Don't Use Google Boost

Google Boost is Google’s newest product for small businesses and seems like a great idea at first.  We tested it when it first got launched months ago and found several reasons why we didn’t like it when compared with our…
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Is Google Plus the New Facebook?

Google recently launched their social media site that might become Facebook’s biggest competitor: Google Plus.  Right now it’s invitation-only, so getting a profile there is not easy. The Features: 1. Circles – you can organize your friends in circles.  You…
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Eye Tracking Study Reveals Most Effective Positions on Google

Miratech did two independent studies for Google pages which tracked participants scanning the search results to conclude which places were most looked at by the users. In conducting the second study Miratech concluded that the results were consistent and they…
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Smaller Auto Insurance Companies Challenge the Online Lead Aggregators

On March 4th 2011, comScore released data which shows that a number of insurer and aggregator businesses, in addition to the dominating companies, have grown in the online auto insurance marketing business. Below are facts from this release that HIGHLIGHTS…
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Insurance Industry ranks #1 for Wasted Time at Work

For several years, Salary.com has been conducting an annual Wasted Time at Work survey. Respondents from the top time wasting industries, including insurance and the public sector, admitted to wasting up to 2.5 hours daily, on non-business related activities. Personal…
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