Fruitbowl - Fresh Ideas from Hawke's Bay

Google have been slowly beefing up their directory products, and have recently introduced Google Local Business center. This allows small businesses to enter in more specific information about themselves (like opening hours etc) and control how they are presented in Google.

This is a great way for small businesses to promote themselves. Authentication is by a phone call which usually happens pretty quickly.

It also allows photo's and images to be loaded. This is a great way for small businesses to differentiate. As an example I set up an LBC listing for Bruce at Aurum which shows the extended attributes ...

Google are winning search and we expect to see many new applications built on top of this directory data. Therefore it's very important to take control of how you are presented in search. Its simple enough to do yourself or talk to your website provider who should be able to quickly set you up. If you are a website provider, here is a useful thing you can do for all of your clients.

http://google.com/lbc