Google Maps From 10 Pack to 1000 Pack

[CHR]

From Mike Bluenthal's blog:

Enhanced Map View

Google has introduced an enhanced business listing Map view in Google Maps that they have referred to as “1000 is the new 10″ in the Lat-Long blog announcing the rollout. The new Map view provides an additional layer of dots that indicate that there are more relevant results than can be shown on one page.

While Google is in the process of passing Mapquest in total visits, user engagement with Maps has historically been shallow. Mark Law of Mapquest noted in a November interview that: MapQuest also has a deeper level of user engagement as demonstrated by 113% more pages viewed per visitor per month than Google maps and visitors spending 78% more minutes (13.8 compared to 7.8 minutes) on MapQuest verses Google Maps.
This appears to be an attempt to educate users about the depth of information available in Maps and encourage them to dig a little deeper into the product.


Maps offers two views of business listing data, the Maps view which is the default view upon entering Maps directly and the text view visible upon entering Maps via the Local 10 Pack. This new pin dense view is only visible when entering Maps directly, not in the text view that is the default view when entering Maps via the Local 10 Pack.

Look at the Florists in Los Angeles results - Wow!

Like the article says, the 10 Pack will stay in Universal Search 'as is' for now but I won't be surprised to see more points on that thumbnail map in the near future, too.

 

[Tracy D'Amico]

well that's just weird. One of the dots for out town is the on-ramp for the Garden State Parkway.

It seems to be a pointless update, with lots of room for confusion for the searcher.

 

[BamaE4U]

Very interesting . . . .

Just curious. . .

Have any of you edited "OUT OF BUSINESS (OOB)" - "Unclaimed" listings with your URL?

Is that unethical?

I found a listing of a "OOB" with another florists URL.

I guess they are open game? Get it before the OG's do?

There is nothing keeping someone else from changing it again though.

 

[BOSS]

Wow... you guys have a "florist" on every corner, just like 7-11"s...

 

[bloomz]

Interesting...3 of the top 5, including the Top 2, are Teleflora template sites.

There went that theory.


and this is sad - from a review of one of the top ten

Not the flowers, vase, or picture you ordered

I ordered flowers for my mother's birthday to be delivered to her workplace. I even sprung for spending more (bigger bouquet of flowers for more money option) When I saw the flowers at her house the next day, they were already wilting and the vase and flowers did not look like the picture at all. The manager explained that more notice is needed for getting the actual vase and flowers - but it wasn't just that - it was the quality, I felt ripped off. I tried them one more time for a friend's 1st day at a promotion and when I had lunch with her I saw them - AGAIN, horrible. I had even gone through the trouble of asking if they had the flowers and vase from the picture, the lady said yes. They later called to tell me they didn't have the vase, I tried to cancel the order but the manager wanted to charge me 30% re-stock fee - the flowers were $130. He kept insisting it would be more beautiful than the online picture, so I finally agreed. He called again to tell me they didn't have the same flowers from the picture as well, but still would not let me cancel even though I had asked first if they had the flowers and vase. They had taped up the opening to a vase with an opening that was clearly too large for the bouquet so it could hold up the flowers. It just really made me feel bad to spend so much money on bad quality - I'm going to use 1800 Flowers in the future.

Bold emphasis mine

 

[theRKF]

Interesting...3 of the top 5, including the Top 2, are Teleflora template sites.

There went that theory.

Don't confuse local search rankings with organic SEO.

You don't even need a website to rank in the local 10 pack.

Ryan

 

[bloomz]

My point exactly.

 

[duanermb]

This just gave me some ideas from the other thread I started. (and tells us why we are growing and successful) We are all alone in our area of the city. 4 out of 5 of the closest dots are closed shops.

Maybe try to grab the phone numbers etc this week...