Google maps revamped

Google has made a powerful push towards becoming the leader in local search. In the past year, Google has implemented a great concentration of changes and testing in Google Maps. Furthermore, Google will acquired leading local players like Yelp. Last month, Google published new Business Listing Quality Guidelines that make it very clear what is and isn’t acceptable for Google Maps listings. The new guidelines have set the stage for aggressive spam scouring within local business listings on Google Maps. This major shift wiped out thousands of innocent business listings that did not meet Google’s new quality guidelines.

In the last few weeks, I have had a few conversations about these changes with *** a manager at Google, Inc. I told him that it reminds me of something that happened before I was married, when I lived close to the downtown area, and a city contractor put up “no parking” signs on the streets without prior notice. At 7 am, while everyone was still sleeping, all of the cars in the neighborhood were towed.

The following was ***’s response:

Hello Dr. Rotstain,

Unfortunately, our teams are not staffed to provide individualized support for this product. Support is primarily handled through […] when an account is suspended, all listings in that account are deleted. Business owners, of course, are welcome to recreate their listings, so long as they follow the listing guidelines.
Again, I understand this must be frustrating, and I apologize for […]

Regards,
***

I strongly recommend that you read the new Business Listing Quality Guidelines very carefully and update your listings accordingly. The new guidelines can be found here:
http://maps.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=107528

Search3w’s changes to service terms

As of 2010, owing to Google’s new Business Listing Quality Guidelines, Search3w will provide Google Maps setup and consulting services for clients, but will not provide monthly monitoring or optimization until further notice.