Local Businesses Look Great on the New Google Maps for iOS

Filed in Google, Local Search by Matt McGee on December 14, 2012 4 Comments

In the short time I’ve played with the new Google Maps app for iOS, I’ve become really happy with how the local business listings look.

Have you seen them? Agree/Disagree?

I like the interface, the look and feel and the way the information is organized. Some screenshots below, but first a quick comparison to Apple Maps.

Business Listing #Fail in Apple Maps

When Apple Maps was launched in September, my wife’s real estate business was an immediate casualty. It was nowhere to be found in Apple Maps — still is, to this very day — and I tried numerous different searches.

apple-maps-cari

It was our fault, not Apple’s. In all the years that she’s been in real estate, we focused on making sure she was visible on Google Maps, Yahoo Local and Bing Local, along with some of the prominent real estate websites. But we never bothered submitting her business to Localeze, Yelp or any of the other data suppliers that Apple uses.

Our bad. I submitted to Localeze — using the free service — within the first week after Apple Maps launched, and it’s still not showing up.

Business Listing Success in Google Maps

So I was quite happy, and not surprised, to find Cari’s business listing readily visible in the new Google Maps app this week.

google-maps-app-cari-1

And I think the presentation of her listing — and others that I checked out — is very nice.

The search takes you to a map showing the business location, and then the business name shows up at the bottom of the screen along with an estimated driving time. Swiping that up from the bottom reveals the business data. The two screens are below, side-by-side. You can click for a larger version.

google-maps-app-cari-2

Things I Like

  1. The look is very clean.
  2. The “call” button is prominent.
  3. The driving time remains visible and can be clicked for directions.
  4. The photos and Street View feature add a nice visual punch.
  5. There’s a fair amount of data on this first screen, with things like business hours a click away.

Things I Don’t Like / Not Sure About

  1. I’d rather the “Call” button be even more prominent. It shouldn’t be given the same priority as “Save” and “Share.”
  2. I’m unclear what the “Save” button does. I clicked in the app and I see the star was immediately showing as “clicked” on her main Google+ page, too, but … what’s that mean?
  3. The “Share” option only offers “Message,” “Mail” and “Copy to clipboard.” Why no other options? Not even an option to share the listing on Google+. That seems odd.
  4. On listings with reviews, Google’s still using that awful Zagat scoring system. Sigh.

Still, I think this serves the local business well. You?

Comments (4)

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  1. Hey Matt,

    Don’t feel bad that Carrie’s biz is not showing up on Apple Maps yet. From what I can tell, they are only updating their index about once/month. And submitting to Localeze’s free service is pretty much a guarantee that they’ll get to it whenever they feel like it, so I would guess that it would take a minimum of three months for a free Localeze submission to make it into Apple Maps. Total guess of course.

  2. Chris says:

    Love it. Force multiplier!

    Thanks for the feedback on free Localeze Andrew, empirical evidence goes a long way in this shifting landscape. Seems to jibe with what Nyagoslav posted some weeks back about update timeframes too.

  3. Greg says:

    I am so happy for the roll out of Google Maps to iOS. Local business truly look amazing… I was shocked that there were so many home businesses in my neighborhood showing up as soon as I launched it. I am so excited for what this will do for local business owners who use customer base uses iPhones! It’s gonna be awesome!

  4. I agree Matt, businesses in the new iOS Google Maps look great and I’m sure they’ll improve over time.

    Like everyone else, I’ve got a laundry list of gripes with Apple Maps:

    1) It doesn’t work, lets get that out of the way

    2) It doesn’t understand simple queries like Google Maps does. I’m not sure if this is local to Australia but if I search for [surfers paradise accommodation], I get no results come back as they don’t know how to move the map to Surfers Paradise and then return the results for accommodation.

    3) The quality of the business listings is woeful at best. In Australia it looks like they’ve gained access to the federal/national business name registration database & just dumped it into Apple Maps. I can tell that something along those lines has happened as non-consumer company names show up in Apple Maps – holding companies, trusts and so forth that no one would logically add to a mapping product.

    4) If you do type in [surfers paradise] to move the map over that suburb and then type in [accommodation], the quality of the results that are returned are horrible. Instead of returning well recognised hotels, you’re instead presented with a raft of useless business listings like “Surfers Paradise Accommodation Provider” that no consumer would want to click onto.

    5) The list keeps going ..

    Al.

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