In a bid to get more advertising dollars from businesses located near people using its search engine, Google Inc. is revamping how it displays information about local enterprises.
Google Fights Facebook, Microsoft in Social Search Google's Place Search, which is expected to roll out globally by Thursday, gives Google users more information about local businesses, such as restaurants and dry cleaners, directly on the first results page, including a photo, review ratings and a snippet of a review from sites such as CitySearch.com or Yelp.com, as well as links to those review sites.
Laurel Tate, co-owner of Two Sole Sisters LLC, a small shoe and accessories shop in Boulder, Colo., says the new format could help small businesses like hers.
"When it populates and gives more information, especially for people who don't know me, it gives my store legitimacy," she says.
However, she speculates that not all businesses will share her enthusiasm—especially those that carry poor reviews on sites like Yelp, since those reviews may be more readily accessible, she says.
Google's new format builds on the previous search results for Places, which included a list of blue links with addresses and a phone number, and a map that showed where they were located. Place Search is triggered automatically when the Google search engine believes a user is searching for local information, similar to how separate product or image searches are triggered and ...
