Google's $10 Local Search Play 193
thefickler writes "Google has come come up with a novel way to boost the information it has about local businesses. As part of its Business Referral Representative program, Google is offering individuals up to $10 to visit local businesses and tell them about Google Maps and Google AdWords, collect information (such as hours of operation and types of payment accepted), and take digital photos of the business. Reaction to the program has been mixed."
Why pay? (Score:2)
I LOVE this idea. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:I LOVE this idea. (Score:5, Informative)
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Re:I LOVE this idea. (Score:5, Insightful)
If you don't exist on local.google.com, you don't exist. My generation (I'm 20) doesn't use the yellow pages anymore, its WAYYY too slow, 8 dollars to have all of your accurate information on the de facto place for people to find businesses is one HELL of a deal.
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Re:I LOVE this idea. (Score:4, Informative)
Re:I LOVE this idea. (Score:4, Funny)
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yellowpages.com sucks and it's not an application on my cell phone that shows me a map, gives me a phone number, and tells me how to get there.
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Here is a question, what would happen if you got half way there and the phone network cut out or the battery went dead and you couldn't use it. Would you be stuck in the middle of nowhere? Or would you be able to use your memory and other tools to get back home?
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On slashdot, everyone imagines themselves (Score:2)
It's a pretty significant (and unfortunate) bias here.
Re:I LOVE this idea. (Score:5, Insightful)
Google is my first destination for many things, but phone listings aren't among them. I tend to have better luck with phone numbers (both ways: look up a business, or reverse-lookup a number who called me) on other sites. I've never used local.google.com for anything, and I use Google for a lot of stuff. The local aspect doesn't appeal to me, at least not yet. Maybe I'm out of touch with the current generation of web-2.0.71 users, but aside from internet cafes or eBay consignment stores, I can't imagine that "if you don't exist on local.google.com, you don't exist" really rings true in many cases.
Last month, I took a vacation. I found my hotel through Google (but not local.google), my directions through Google (won't do that again), and that was it. I showed up in town, found my room, and had good meals at a few locally owned restaurants that I found the old fashioned way... By driving past them and thinking "mmm, Mike's Steakhouse, that sounds good, I'll go there for dinner tonight." I have no problem with folks who want to use Google as a concierge to their city, or the myriad cities to which they travel. It blew my mind that I could get an up-close satellite view of my hotel and its surroundings from Google. But they're hardly a make-or-break thing for local businesses.
Tourists and natives alike will always be adventurous and they don't need Google to do so.
Re:I LOVE this idea. (Score:5, Insightful)
I was camping with my family recently and didn't have Internet access during the trip. After a disastrous morning fishing where I lost two lures, I wanted to find a good bait shop to get some advice about the lake we were fishing on. So I pulled out my blackberry, fired up Google maps, and searched for bait shops (and several variations on that term) for that area. Only two local shops came up, and we set out to find them.
After an hour of driving around looking for these shops, it turned out that neither shop was in business any longer, and we had to settle for the sporting goods section at the local Super Walmart. Next time, I'll settle for talking to the person at the campground store.
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OTOH, local fishing and huntin
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That assumes that my blackberry was set up for voice+data service, and not data only service. In this case, my blackberry was set up for data only.
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Perhaps you can show me how to work this thing?
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for example the search super fresh, 19711 in the google search box turns up an address and phone sumber far faster than looking up super fresh and then guessing the right address. It also gives a map that doesn't exist in the phone book.
I can wake up my sleeping computer and do this much quicker than the alphabet.
Another search that took me a long time to get the correct catagory in the phone book is
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Seriously, I did not know local.google.com existed until just now. I just went to it and I don't really get the point. Is it just a redirect to Google Maps?
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You are 20? "We" don't care. (Score:2)
If you are 20, I assume you are broke. Therefore random business owners don't care.
I can kind of see why Coke or Pepsi would try to "grab" you, to establish a lifetime of brand loyalty. But right now, I really don't see how "Tim's Deli" could really care one way or the other why random-20-year-old would care.
The reason "Tim's Deli" should care, is because of me! I am a 40-mumble-something and I do have money. And you know what? I don't use the freak
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It could be an uphill battle to some extent. So don't take it personal when they don't jump at the chance to get your dollar as you put it. They are still remembering all the dollars people got from them.
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Around here, for a small (especially trendy) mainly impulse-buy shop, younger working folks are the target market.
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and what does your spelling of the word sentence prove?
(sorry, had to)
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So what you'll end up with is a lot of time spent for $2 per business, and you paying all the expenses (car, gas, camera, net access, et cetera). Evil.
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Where do I sign up to pay to have people like you removed from the internet?
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On the other hand, it is an even greater incentive to try to build a community around the site to help keep information up to date. The little guy may not be able to compete against Google, but perhaps a bunch of little guys working together can.
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I'd like to see it be a little more suburbanite-friendly (e.g. put a zip code box front and center), but that notwithstanding, the conc
Re:I LOVE this idea. (Score:5, Insightful)
Personally, I think this will wind up backfiring and taking a lot of Google's goodwill with it. As someone who managed a retail store in a previous life, nothing used to piss me off more than people coming in trying to solicit (especially trying to push anything advertising related). Shop owners are going to get really frustrated at Google after they start having to explain to 10 people a day that "no, I'm not interested in AdWords and besides, 10 people a day have been trying to peddle this shit to me for two months now."
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The only large-scale metropolitan areas that I can think of that might have a large enough student population with slightly greater motivation is the Bay Area and the Boston area. Even then the surrounding areas are HUGE, there are
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If you don't do the job within a day or two, the records get reset and the next lucky
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Overall, it comes of as a really slutty advertising campaign, get free press for it, get lots of word of
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Other idea: sign up with $10 Adwords free (Score:2)
All in all I feel tha
And remember, kids.... (Score:5, Insightful)
...Don't forget to factor in your time spent processing the materials, talking to the shop owners, getting to and from the shop, etc...
...and that's not even considering potential gas costs...
Anyone feel like doing a breakdown on cost/profit margin on this? Urban versus rural areas?Re: (Score:2)
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U.S. only :( (Score:5, Informative)
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Google do themselves and their stakeholders no favours by artifically limiting their market to the geographic borders of the country in which their headquarters are coincidentally found.
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Somewhat - maybe distant - similarity to Apple, see how much ipods they sell internationally, and in how few countries itunes is available. It's a wierd philosophy, since it's like hey, we've got enough customers, don't bother with the rest, even if they want to spend their money on us.
All in all, I don't care that this is only national now at Google, since you always got to start fr
I VOLUNTEER! (Score:5, Funny)
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Not a bad idea if you want to learn how to fly (bouncers can throw far).
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Isn't this kind of hard to enforce, now that cameras are on every cell phone almost?
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Umm, possible legal troubles? (Score:4, Informative)
While rare, I can see someone getting their panties in a bunch over their place of business being photographed without permission...
Then we have the "hey! I got an idea! let's photograph the inside of a Wal-Mart!" (where the photog will promptly get thrown out...)
Could be wrong (they might've covered, you know, permissions), but I can see lots of kids getting snagged in something like that. /P
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...I can see someone getting their panties in a bunch over their place of business being photographed without permission....
Umm... That's probably why Google wants you to go inside and
...tell them about Google Maps and Google AdWords, collect information (such as hours of operation and types of payment accepted), and...
get permission to
... take digital photos of the business.
It all seems pretty well implied. You didn't even have to read the article.
Re:Umm, possible legal troubles? (Score:5, Informative)
Many smaller businesses don't even care if you take pictures inside anyway... it's mostly the big chain stores that disallow it and, ironically enough, also tend to be less interesting to photograph in the first place.
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I don't know how it is where you live, but none of the Wal-marts near me have public sidewalks anywhere near them.
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a) you are photographing from a private location. (public road is fine)
- or -
b) the photograph is used for commercial purposes.
What Google is doing can very easily be justified as editorial, not commercial.
In any case, it would not surprise me if it is included with the questionnaire that is taken inside to the owner.
Not exactly... (Score:2)
Like I said - it would be rare, but it is something to consider.
Harm? (Score:2)
Pretty big catch, right around the "earn up to" (Score:3, Insightful)
It's only $2 bucks for all the legwork. $2 bucks, and that only once Google is happy with your hard work.
The remaining $8 bucks comes once a business "Confirms" the info is accurate. They do that either via a mail-in card, or online. In other words, a teeny tiny fraction of the businesses you hard-working stiffs collect, will likely ever follow up on this part. And among the ones who do, what do you bet that if there's any correction, ANY, then the $8 bucks is forfeit?
It's great for Google, bad for the pavement pounders. Best bet is to hire your 12 year old kids to do the leg work for you, give them the $2 bucks and a valuable lesson in hard work and communications. Then any "confirmations" that pan out, keep that for yourself.
Kids gotta learn about payroll deductions sometime.
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will they even pay for all of the things you send. (Score:5, Informative)
http://www.google.com/local/referral/termsAndCond
TERMS AND CONDITIONS
Compensation. For each month during the Service Period, Google will pay Contractor (i) for each Customer for whom Contractor has collected and submitted Customer Data to Google in accordance with these Terms and Google, in its sole discretion, has accepted or approved of the Customer Data submitted by Contractor for such Customer, a one-time fee of two U.S. dollars ($2) (a "Base Referral Fee") and (ii) if such Customer is a Verified Customer, an additional one-time fee of eight U.S. dollars ($8) (a "Bonus Referral Fee" and together with Base Referral Fee, "Referral Fees"). A Customer is a "Verified Customer" if and when Google receives written confirmation (whether by mail, email or on-line via a URL designated by Google) from such Customer that the Customer Data submitted by Contractor for such Customer is current, complete and correct. Payment of any Referral Fees is contingent upon Google's receipt of a completed W-9 Form by Contractor. Notwithstanding any of the foregoing, the Referral Fees will not be considered earned by Contractor should Google, in its sole discretion, determine that it has previously received Customer Data for such Customer by a party other than Contractor and so inform Contractor no later than five (5) business days after Contractor's submission of such Customer Data. Google shall pay Contractor Referral Fees earned during each month, with payment for that month being made within thirty (30) days of the end of the immediately following month, if Contractor has earned at least twenty-five U.S. dollars ($25) for such month. If Contractor has not earned at least twenty-five U.S. dollars ($25) in a given month, then Google will defer payment until Contractor has earned at least twenty-five U.S. dollars ($25). Payment will be mailed to Contractor at the address provided by Contractor on Contractor's IRS W-9 Form. For the avoidance of doubt, (x) Google has no obligation to accept or sell Google products or services to any Customer and (y) in the event that a Customer purchases any Google product or service, Contractor is not entitled to receive any compensation or payment in connection therewith.
Perfect for the anti-Wal-Mart crowd. (Score:5, Insightful)
I know that I, for one, don't neglect smaller shops because I would rather go to Target. For the most part, I do it because I am unaware that there even is a small shop that could serve my needs.
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I was searching for some information about a mail-receiving place near my new apartment (as I don't believe the apartment I am in will sign for packages and I need someplace to drop off eBay shipments) and I found the name of some place but no more information. I did all the searches I could find and got no information. Had to wait until they were open for business before I could find out any useful information (and even then, it turns out they open at 10:00AM instead of 9 so t
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What about Canada? (Score:3, Interesting)
Google could be making real money in Canada, and yet they choose not to. Why is the Canadian market ignored yet again? Google has access to prime revenue streams: we can be paid in currency that Google already does business in, our cities are already well integrated into the Google Maps grid, and Canadian business can and does take advantage of Google's paid placement programs.
While Canada itself is a significantly smaller overall market than the United States itself, I don't understand why the international border comes into play at all. After all, our urbanized centres easily compare the market sizes of the American cities that Google is focussing efforts on... and isn't that what counts when it comes down to it?
Google, please include Canadian cities in your future service rollouts. Our advertising dollar is every bit as useful to you as an American one.
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Other examples of areas where Canada has set the lead ahead of the US technologically:
-microwave communications in the 1950s
-high speed internet... now... everywhere... affordably.
-GSM cellular network penetration
We've been able to do things like this
I just have to... (Score:2)
Actually your dollar is still worth less than ours...
You don't know much about urban sprawl in America. You can take most of the populations here [infoplease.com] and triple them. While it says LA has only 3.8 million people, the LA metropolitan area has almost 13 million. That's 3 times as many people, and the per capita income for LA is $35,1881 American dollars while Montr
As a small business owner... (Score:2, Insightful)
The thing is that many of my acquaintances are small business owners. And I decided to Google their businesses while I was registering mine. Most came up with name and address -- even though they didn't register to be listed with Google. Some didn't come up at all.
I went to them. I explained the situation. Google acts as a phone book to many of
Reminds me of Snow Crash (Score:2, Interesting)
It's really a door to door sales scheme (Score:2)
This isn't about taking pictures. This is a door to door commission sales scheme. The "Business Referral Representative" gives a handout to the business owner, encouraging them to sign up with Google. "As a Google Business Referral Representative, you'll visit local businesses to collect information (such as hours of operation, types of payment accepted, etc.) for Google Maps, and tell them about Google Maps and Google AdWords." Google pays $2 for each sales call, and $8 for each sale.
Door to door selli
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The big box stores have all of their information on their related sites already. I wouldn't expect much from them.
Beware (Score:2, Interesting)
From their terms and conditions [google.com]:
"8. Rights to Developments. As between the Parties, all software (including modifications and documentation), products, inventions, documents, writings and other materials conceived, prepared, made, discovered or produced by Contractor during the Service Period, including without limitation Deliverables that relate in any manner to the Program or business of Google (collectively, the "Developments"), shall be the sole and exclusive prop
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Directory Information (Score:2)
Keeping directory information current is a friggin' nightmare. Good luck to them.
We do this and offer up to £90 ($150) (Score:2)
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How much are you fooling yourself into thinking this data is worth?
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http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=in+and+out+bu rger+canoga+park&btnG=Search [google.com]
Now the person records information about the business
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If Google is smart, they'll provide some ready-made PDFs for just this purpose. With some practice and papers in hand, I could see getting your time down to 10-15 minute
Too much work??? (Score:2)
collect business information that some business won't even release easily (or at all)
I _KNOW_ what you mean. Just look at this actual transcript that I didn't just totally make up this morning:
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Me: Okay sir, just a few more quick questions and I'm out of your hair. By the way, don't forget to check these and make sure they're correct once they get posted online. Lots of customers are going to look at this information, and we want it to be right.
Owner: PISS OFF!!!
Me: Um, okay. Should we continue?
Owner: Yes, please.
Me: Good. It says on the door that you're open from 10 AM to 9 PM, is