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Google has added another new element to search results recently (to me anyway) by including phone number results for a name search + location.

Notice the links to a map next to each result.  These are currently leading to the address associated with that phone number in Google Maps.

I have also noticed these phone book results being displayed in conjunction with the new authority one boxes… which I hope to write about shortly (tonight hopefully).

What does this mean?  I don’t know.   Read more...

On a recent trip to Cub Foods with my wife – my 4 year old daughter asked to take a few pictures with mommy’s Droid.  I plucked the best of the bunch and have them for display below.

Watch out breakfast cereal and fruit snack industry – kids might be too busy watching Elmo on YouTube to run around like wild animals in the sugary treats aisle.

*note – I am aware the CSS is off in the Flickr gallery – no time to tinker tonight

Event Highlights (Afternoon Session)

• Aaron Weiche opens the event with some Mitch Hedberg
• Mike Blumenthal inherits the name “Professor Maps” on Twitter.  Seconds later the professor blows some minds with his demo of Google 411 .  Ed Reese promptly followed with the best tweet of the event:

• An attendee asks Google’s Jeral Poskey about the process for having businesses like domestic abuse shelters removed from Google Maps.  Within a couple hours a tweet from @mapsguide advises the #LocalU crowd via Twitter that the shelter in question had been removed from Google Maps.

  Read more...

I posted earlier today about the variety of service area options in Google Places and wanted to follow up with a few more observations I came across while tinkering.  It relates to a questions I raised in regards to whether or not it is more advantageous to set a service area radius or to choose “serviceable cities” when inputting your settings in the service area options.

Observation #1

The farthest away one can set their service area radius  is 625 miles.  I have tried this under a few different business listings across a couple different industries and was unable to find any fluctuation here.

Observation #2

It seems to be pretty “wide open” if you decide to list your areas served. The below image displays a service area map in which over 20 locations around the United States were selected.



It’s interesting that there is an ability to go well beyond this 625 mile limit set by the service radius option (in fact, for the hell of it I played around with international cities – and they were also included on my map) – my gut says trying to extend beyond this 625 mile listing is probably a waste of time.