Clicksharp Marketing

Google’s LatLong blog, the repository of information pertinent to the Google Maps product which is revolutionizing search engine marketing, recently announced a major innovation.

Users of Google Maps, when looking for directions between locations, can now enter a business name and omit the address — and still get detailed step by step directions, from door to door. Google used to require addresses for both the start and end points, but no longer.

This is a big step forward for the functionality of Google Maps, and eventually, all the competitive search properties vying to deliver the ultimate consumer experience.

But there’s a niche here which is easily overlooked: the people who just don’t feel like typing the extra information. As is almost always the case, when we talk of something relevant to local search, there is an implied impact on mobile search. You might ask, well how many people are really that lazy? For the answer, pick up your cell phone and try inputting a business name and address into a blank message. Now how much faster would that be without the address? With mobile search already a nearly $5 billion market, this is no drop in the bucket.

Rather, this is a major development for small businesses in their continued quest to compete with household brands. If you don’t already have a presence in the local search engines, it’s time to change that.

This entry was posted on Monday, January 28th, 2008 @ 8:24 pm on the category Local search, Small business. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.


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