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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."
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).
NewslilySocial News. No lolcats allowed.
...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?Don't tell me to get a life. I'm a gamer; I have LOTS of lives!
Cool and stuff, but "... in the U.S.". WTF? Should be noted first in the article.
To go and track down and get the info for all the stripclubs and brothels/"gentlemen's clubs".
"Thank you for using Stop-n-Drop, America's favorite suicide booth since 2008"
While rare, I can see someone getting their panties in a bunch over their place of business being photographed without permission...
Then we have the "hey! I got an idea! let's photograph the inside of a Wal-Mart!" (where the photog will promptly get thrown out...)
Could be wrong (they might've covered, you know, permissions), but I can see lots of kids getting snagged in something like that. /P
Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
It's worth exactly as much as somebody is willing to pay.
Why yes, I AM a rocket scientist!
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:
u rger+canoga+park&btnG=Search
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=in+and+out+b
Now the person records information about the business that's displayed natively and boom, goog has solid information on that business.
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.
In from thei tions
http://www.google.com/local/referral/termsAndCond
TERMS AND CONDITIONS
Compensation. For each month during the Service Period, Google will pay Contractor (i) for each Customer for whom Contractor has collected and submitted Customer Data to Google in accordance with these Terms and Google, in its sole discretion, has accepted or approved of the Customer Data submitted by Contractor for such Customer, a one-time fee of two U.S. dollars ($2) (a "Base Referral Fee") and (ii) if such Customer is a Verified Customer, an additional one-time fee of eight U.S. dollars ($8) (a "Bonus Referral Fee" and together with Base Referral Fee, "Referral Fees"). A Customer is a "Verified Customer" if and when Google receives written confirmation (whether by mail, email or on-line via a URL designated by Google) from such Customer that the Customer Data submitted by Contractor for such Customer is current, complete and correct. Payment of any Referral Fees is contingent upon Google's receipt of a completed W-9 Form by Contractor. Notwithstanding any of the foregoing, the Referral Fees will not be considered earned by Contractor should Google, in its sole discretion, determine that it has previously received Customer Data for such Customer by a party other than Contractor and so inform Contractor no later than five (5) business days after Contractor's submission of such Customer Data. Google shall pay Contractor Referral Fees earned during each month, with payment for that month being made within thirty (30) days of the end of the immediately following month, if Contractor has earned at least twenty-five U.S. dollars ($25) for such month. If Contractor has not earned at least twenty-five U.S. dollars ($25) in a given month, then Google will defer payment until Contractor has earned at least twenty-five U.S. dollars ($25). Payment will be mailed to Contractor at the address provided by Contractor on Contractor's IRS W-9 Form. For the avoidance of doubt, (x) Google has no obligation to accept or sell Google products or services to any Customer and (y) in the event that a Customer purchases any Google product or service, Contractor is not entitled to receive any compensation or payment in connection therewith.
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.
I don't quite understand what makes this "evil." There are hundreds, if not thousands of places online where people gather this type of information (and more) for free. Check out Yelp.com. How much do you think this infomation is worth? And how else would the average person be able to capitalize on it? Sure, they could hire a group of full time employees to do the same work, but I bet they would miss a lot of niche places that your average cash-strapped college student is perfectly happy to go to.
It's only 10 bucks per business, but I really don't see how this could take more than 20-30 mins per store. Probably sounds something like this: "Hi, I'm Bill, I'm here on behalf of Google. We'd like to get little bit of information about your business to help keep Google maps more accurate, in order to help your bussiness. When are you open? What kinds of payment do you take? What do you sell? Can I take a couple pictures? Give us you email address so we can verify this all with you before it gets posted online. Kthnxbye." You can probably get 2 businesses in an hour, and even if you only get a 50% verification rate, that's 12 bucks an hour, which is a pretty good wage for a college student.
I live in Montreal. Montreal's metropolitan area has a population of 3.6 million people. This is equivalent in market to Los Angeles and Chicago, your second and third largest cities. Montreal is entirely neglected by this program. Additionally, Toronto's metro area has a population of over 5 million, second in size on this continent only to New York City. Again, Toronto is entirely neglected by this program. I understand Google Labs technologies such as street view and traffic require the participation of local governments, but a program like this one is driven entirely by market... and not only are there Canadian Google users, but lots of them, too.
Google could be making real money in Canada, and yet they choose not to. Why is the Canadian market ignored yet again? Google has access to prime revenue streams: we can be paid in currency that Google already does business in, our cities are already well integrated into the Google Maps grid, and Canadian business can and does take advantage of Google's paid placement programs.
While Canada itself is a significantly smaller overall market than the United States itself, I don't understand why the international border comes into play at all. After all, our urbanized centres easily compare the market sizes of the American cities that Google is focussing efforts on... and isn't that what counts when it comes down to it?
Google, please include Canadian cities in your future service rollouts. Our advertising dollar is every bit as useful to you as an American one.
Urban Detail
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".
Hmm, is anyone else at all reminded of the CIC from Snow Crash? Being paid to go around and find information that someone 'may' be interested in, one day? The only difference is that you won't be paid per hit that the store you scoped out gets, though that could work too, i suppose.
Immolation is the sincerest form of flattery.
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.
Give a man a fish, he'll eat for a day, but teach a man to phish...
From their terms and conditions:
"8. Rights to Developments. As between the Parties, all software (including modifications and documentation), products, inventions, documents, writings and other materials conceived, prepared, made, discovered or produced by Contractor during the Service Period, including without limitation Deliverables that relate in any manner to the Program or business of Google (collectively, the "Developments"), shall be the sole and exclusive property of Google."
More discussion may be found at blogoscoped.