Dit artikel gaat over de bedrijfsinformatie die Google krijgt d.m.v. hun Webcrawlers (Spiders). Daarnaast gaat het ook in op het gebruik van adressen op een website. h3. Webcrawler
Lees verder “Hoe kan je eigen informatie op Google Maps publiceren (2): Webcrawler”
For those of you who are waiting for the next installment in the How to get your information into Google Maps series, here’s a quick update.
Writing the last two articles about Local Ads and User Generated Content is taking longer than I thought it would take. Especially the one about Local Ads.
The local features of Adwords are difficult to test just for the sake of an article, without running a real campaign.
So keep your eyes posted on this blog, next week the last 2 articles will be published.
In the mean time, if you’re Dutch, you may wanna check out the Dutch version of this series. It’s not just a translated version, but it will also be adapted to the Dutch Google Maps (if possible and needed).
Google voegt steeds meer informatie toe aan Google Maps. Deze informatie bestaat uit lokale bedrijven, restaurants, hotels, openbaar vervoer en zelfs live verkeersinformatie (op dit moment alleen nog maar in de VS beschikbaaar).
Voor veel mensen is het onduidelijk waar Google deze informatie vandaan haalt.
Tijdens de Geo Developer Dag van 29 maart jongstleden kwam ik er ook achter dat er weinig mensen (bedrijven) zijn die weten hoe ze hun eigen informatie op de kaart kunnen beheren mbv het Google Bedrijvencentrum.
Deze serie gaat over de bronnen waar Google de informatie vandaan haalt en hoe bedrijven hun eigen informatie kunnen toevoegen of wijzigen.
Eerst een introductie.
Lees verder “Hoe kan je eigen informatie op Google Maps publiceren (1)”
In the previous article in the ‘how to get your information into Google Maps’ series I talked about the 3rd party sources Google is using for their data on Google Maps. After reading this article you’re ready to get your hands dirty and start adding your own business information by using the Local Business Center.
Lees verder “How to get your information into Google Maps (4): Local Business Center”
I think the most important source of data for Google Maps are the local data suppliers or 3rd party sources.
The biggest difference between the webcrawling results and 3rd party sources is the structure of the data. 3rd Party sources know what the address fields are, how the extra data like reviews is structured, etc. While data from the crawlers isn’t structure at all, as we saw in the previous post.
Lees verder “How to get your information into Google Maps (3): Local data suppliers”
Today was an important day because of Google’s announcements about My Maps and KML search. I’ll talk about these later on in this series, when I’m writing about user generated sources.
This post is about the business data Google gets by crawling the Internet and the use of addresses on your website.
Lees verder “How to get your information into Google Maps (2): Webcrawler”
Google is adding more and more localized information to Google Maps. They are adding information about local businesses, restaurants, hotels, public transport and even live traffic information (at this moment only available for the US).
What the sources are for the information Google displays on the maps isn’t very clear to a lot of people.
At last week’s Geo Developer day I also discovered not a lot of people know how they can control their own information on the maps by using the Google Local Business center.
In this series of posts I’ll write about the sources Google uses and ways how to add or edit your own information.
First let’s start with an introduction.
Lees verder “How to get your information into Google Maps (1)”
Yesterday I was at the Google Geo Developer day in Amsterdam. I think it’s the second time Google organizes such an event. The first time was last year preceding the Oreilly’s Where 2.0 conference in the US (btw. why isn’t there such an event in Europe?).
The program looked interesting and I was looking forward meeting other Google Maps developers.
The day started with some keynotes.
Lees verder “Report of the Google Geo Developer Day in Amsterdam”
This morning there’s some great news about the Google Maps API:
The Google Maps API Team is excited to announce our new open source project, the GMaps Utility Library. This project will be hosted on code.google.com and will let the Google engineers for the Maps API work hand-in-hand with the many great developers in the Maps API community. Together, we can extend the core Maps API and ensure that every developer need is met.
There are a few reasons why I think this is great news:
Lees verder “Google Maps API first steps towards open source”
On the Google Blog there’s an official announcement of the Plus Box feature. This feature allows extra information to be shown next to individual search results. The feature isn’t completely new, as several bloggers, including Google’s own Matt Cutts have written about it (see search engine land’s post with links to a few of them).
There are two types of Plus Box result: Stock information and maps. I don’t find stock information that interesting, but I love the maps Plus Box. If you search for a business and Google knows its address, there will be a map shown next to the search result with a marker where the address is.
At this moment most (all?) of the results are from the US. You can search for restaurants in New York and you’ll see a few examples (at the bottom of the first page). Sadly I haven’t found any business with a Map Plus Box in The Netherlands (or elsewhere in Europe). The only result with a maps Plus Box you’ll get when searching for restaurants in Amsterdam is Amsterdam Restaurant in New York 🙂
The Google Blog says they are working hard to increase the availability and I hope they will add availability of non-US businesses soon.
I’m not sure a lot of people now how they can add their business information to Google so it’ll show up in the Plus Box or in a Google Maps search. You can add your own information by using the Local Business Center. See more information at the Webmaster Help Center.
In The Netherlands most companies are registered in the Chamber of Commerce register (KvK) and this information automatically shows up in a Google Maps search. At the Local Business Center you can change and add your information (images, description, categories, etc). Before these changes will show up in the search results you have to enter a PIN you’ll get by snail mail sent to your business address.
In the Local Business Center you can also see some kind of statistics, I don’t know what kind of stats it’ll show, because I haven’t received the PIN yet. I’ve changed my information on March 8.
According to the Google Blog there will be more Plus Boxes in the future. One has already been spotted, the Video Plus Box, which shows a video in the Plus Box. I’m curious whether this will only show Youtube and Google Video results, or also videos of Google’s competitors?