Google's $10 Local Search Play

thefickler writes "Google has come come up with a novel way to boost the information it has about local businesses. As part of its Business Referral Representative program, Google is offering individuals up to $10 to visit local businesses and tell them about Google Maps and Google AdWords, collect information (such as hours of operation and types of payment accepted), and take digital photos of the business. Reaction to the program has been mixed."

Comments

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[Anonymous Coward]

That's good if it helps boost the amount of information available to GOOG-411.

I LOVE this idea.

[blhack]

Back when i was in school, the job i was working didn't quite pay enough to cover all of the bills...being able to toss a notebook in the car and go hit a bunch of places for 10 bucks a pop would have been a godsend for me and most of my friends. This is especially true if you plan; hit 10 places in one day all in a row (heck, if you live in a downtown area, just take out the whole street in an afternoon).

Re:I LOVE this idea.

[ShaunC]

This is especially true if you plan; hit 10 places in one day all in a row (heck, if you live in a downtown area, just take out the whole street in an afternoon).

The problem is the economy of scale. If you're in a relatively large-sized metropolitan area large enough to have 10 businesses per day not far out of your reach, chances are good that your city also has a lot of other cash-strapped college students who would also love $10 a pop. The competition would be insane, and remember, $8 of that $10 only comes after Google follows up with the business and they verify the information you collected. For each business you stop at, take some photos, ask the manager a few questions, then go home and upload it all, you're only guaranteed $2.

Personally, I think this will wind up backfiring and taking a lot of Google's goodwill with it. As someone who managed a retail store in a previous life, nothing used to piss me off more than people coming in trying to solicit (especially trying to push anything advertising related). Shop owners are going to get really frustrated at Google after they start having to explain to 10 people a day that "no, I'm not interested in AdWords and besides, 10 people a day have been trying to peddle this shit to me for two months now."

Re:I LOVE this idea.

[blhack]

I was actually having a conversation with somebody about this the other day:

If you don't exist on local.google.com, you don't exist. My generation (I'm 20) doesn't use the yellow pages anymore, its WAYYY too slow, 8 dollars to have all of your accurate information on the de facto place for people to find businesses is one HELL of a deal.

Re:I LOVE this idea.

[Vulva R. Thompson, P]

It seems like it should be the other way around. Design a web interface and supporting middleware to a database of the x million businesses Google compiles. If the college student wants to participate and they live in the geographic area, they'd sign up and "check out" a maximum of 5 or so businesses at a time. "Check out" meaning a couple fields in each business's record gets flagged and timestamped like a library book.

If you don't do the job within a day or two, the records get reset and the next lucky college student can check them out. Upon completion, Google's happy and the college student is definitely happy. The business is (presumably) happy because they got new advertising exposure on the interweb for free and they didn't get bugged to hell. And there's really no way to "hijack" a bounty since if you didn't check it out then you don't get paid. It seems this would alleviate the obvious problems you described very well.

Having said all that, realistically Google already thought of this process and rejected it. So what's wrong with it?

Re:I LOVE this idea.

[arth1]

Because the receptionist or clerk you get to talk to has no authority to say yes or no, and can't even verify the information to Google. The people who can verify this and is authorized to email outside companies on behalf of the company won't talk to unsolicited visitors with neither credentials nor an invitation.

So what you'll end up with is a lot of time spent for $2 per business, and you paying all the expenses (car, gas, camera, net access, et cetera). Evil.

Re:I LOVE this idea.

[ShaunC]

Yep. As well as switchboard.com, and kevdb.infospace.com, etc. In fact, there's a nasty rumor going around that a few times a year, while you're at work and unable to catch them in the act, someone will toss a yellow bag into your yard, and if you open that yellow bag, there's a book full of phone numbers inside. I know it's passe, and it really isn't sexy, but it's usually pretty reliable. Most places don't change their phone numbers all that often.

Google is my first destination for many things, but phone listings aren't among them. I tend to have better luck with phone numbers (both ways: look up a business, or reverse-lookup a number who called me) on other sites. I've never used local.google.com for anything, and I use Google for a lot of stuff. The local aspect doesn't appeal to me, at least not yet. Maybe I'm out of touch with the current generation of web-2.0.71 users, but aside from internet cafes or eBay consignment stores, I can't imagine that "if you don't exist on local.google.com, you don't exist" really rings true in many cases.

Last month, I took a vacation. I found my hotel through Google (but not local.google), my directions through Google (won't do that again), and that was it. I showed up in town, found my room, and had good meals at a few locally owned restaurants that I found the old fashioned way... By driving past them and thinking "mmm, Mike's Steakhouse, that sounds good, I'll go there for dinner tonight." I have no problem with folks who want to use Google as a concierge to their city, or the myriad cities to which they travel. It blew my mind that I could get an up-close satellite view of my hotel and its surroundings from Google. But they're hardly a make-or-break thing for local businesses.

Tourists and natives alike will always be adventurous and they don't need Google to do so.

Re:I LOVE this idea.

[masdog]

Google is my first destination for many things, but phone listings aren't among them. I tend to have better luck with phone numbers (both ways: look up a business, or reverse-lookup a number who called me) on other sites. I've never used local.google.com for anything, and I use Google for a lot of stuff. The local aspect doesn't appeal to me, at least not yet. Maybe I'm out of touch with the current generation of web-2.0.71 users, but aside from internet cafes or eBay consignment stores, I can't imagine that "if you don't exist on local.google.com, you don't exist" really rings true in many cases.
I was camping with my family recently and didn't have Internet access during the trip. After a disastrous morning fishing where I lost two lures, I wanted to find a good bait shop to get some advice about the lake we were fishing on. So I pulled out my blackberry, fired up Google maps, and searched for bait shops (and several variations on that term) for that area. Only two local shops came up, and we set out to find them.

After an hour of driving around looking for these shops, it turned out that neither shop was in business any longer, and we had to settle for the sporting goods section at the local Super Walmart. Next time, I'll settle for talking to the person at the campground store.

Re:I LOVE this idea.

[blhack]

That blackberry device that you were using can also make phone calls. Phone calls travel really fast, and can generally inform you whether or not the business is open.

And remember, kids....

[UncleTogie]

...Don't forget to factor in your time spent processing the materials, talking to the shop owners, getting to and from the shop, etc...

...and that's not even considering potential gas costs...

Anyone feel like doing a breakdown on cost/profit margin on this? Urban versus rural areas?

Re:Wow

[Moofie]

It's worth exactly as much as somebody is willing to pay.

Re:Too much work.

[fimbulvetr]

Too much work for you, perhaps, and many other people. Others? Maybe not so much. Making a quick buck here and there is a good deal for many people, especially when it's as trivial as showing them a few pieces of paper. Half of the "sales pitch" as it were is telling the business they will show up on google maps when people search for their business, sort of like this:

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=in+and+out+bu rger+canoga+park&btnG=Search

Now the person records information about the business that's displayed natively and boom, goog has solid information on that business.

Pretty big catch, right around the "earn up to"

[searchr]

not quite the cornucopia of insta-wealth it appears, to all you starving students out there.

It's only $2 bucks for all the legwork. $2 bucks, and that only once Google is happy with your hard work.

The remaining $8 bucks comes once a business "Confirms" the info is accurate. They do that either via a mail-in card, or online. In other words, a teeny tiny fraction of the businesses you hard-working stiffs collect, will likely ever follow up on this part. And among the ones who do, what do you bet that if there's any correction, ANY, then the $8 bucks is forfeit?

It's great for Google, bad for the pavement pounders. Best bet is to hire your 12 year old kids to do the leg work for you, give them the $2 bucks and a valuable lesson in hard work and communications. Then any "confirmations" that pan out, keep that for yourself.

Kids gotta learn about payroll deductions sometime.

Perfect for the anti-Wal-Mart crowd.

[KTheorem]

This would be a great thing for those who want to help out the small businesses in their area. They can go out and literally put them on the map. The more people that are aware the small shops exist, the more likely people will be to shop there.

I know that I, for one, don't neglect smaller shops because I would rather go to Target. For the most part, I do it because I am unaware that there even is a small shop that could serve my needs.

Re:Perfect for the anti-Wal-Mart crowd.

[drsquare]

The small shops can be on the map all they want. They'll still close at 4pm and refuse to take cards.

As a small business owner...

[nevesis]

As a small business owner -- an IT business, at that -- one of the first things I did was make sure I was listed with Google. I followed up with the phone books.

The thing is that many of my acquaintances are small business owners. And I decided to Google their businesses while I was registering mine. Most came up with name and address -- even though they didn't register to be listed with Google. Some didn't come up at all.

I went to them. I explained the situation. Google acts as a phone book to many of us. And they display the business result in prime screen real estate for free! If they're listed, the more information they provide, the better. And if they don't provide any information, they're basically illegitimate in my eyes.


Basically, I see this as Google's quest to get small businesses listed in their "web 2.0 phone book".

Re:What about Canada?

[Nazlfrag]

Yeah, you and every other city & country on the planet outside the US. Ever think that the program might expand if the US trial is successful? Give it some time, it's unlikely any company would launch such a program worldwide without testing their home market first.

Re:You are 20? "We" don't care.

[devilspgd]

Perhaps not all 20-something year olds have money. Some of us do, some of us have a lot of disposable income, and I spend more of it (in absolute dollars) then what my dad spends on fast food / take out food, despite the fact that he makes far more then I do.

Around here, for a small (especially trendy) mainly impulse-buy shop, younger working folks are the target market.