Many people thought that google local business was a good idea ( I did too in the first place ), today i have met with 2 companies that just laid off 50% of their work force just because customers were contacting the businesses they needed directly instead of using a 3rd party portal. Google local business made it so easy to find a an hotel for example that people didn't need to book through an expedia kind of site anymore. This is also true for other sectors. The sad part in this story is that there is no real winner in that situation, the customer pays the same price for his service in the end, and the intermediate people lost their jobs. Anyone of you experienced a loss of customers because of google local business ? P.
In my opinion my friend you are right but some poor people have no money that's is the best choice for start new business without money.
I guess the searcher is the one that benefits....they find their results faster and that is what Google is all about. I do agree it sucks for the business that will suffer but you can't blame Google for doing this part of their job too good. I read an article about that over here too and it was pretty good, http://www.torontoseofirm.com/does-google-want-to-put-your-website-out-of-business/
well, i think businesses that are listed under google local are the real winners. world is changing and so is the way of browsing the net. if a business can take adventage of the innovation and get their site listed/found on google local, they can sky rocket their revenue.
middleman sites get good deal with the prices, so in most cases they can offer cheap deals. most consumers know that. I dont think local would destroy the middleman business. there could be some exceptions though.
Learn how to rank on google local business. Crazy how google is taking away from other businesses. lol.
You have to understand that local businesses are saving commissions charged by middlemen every time someone comes to them direct. As they make more money, they will employ more people, and their businesses will grow. For every job lost, there are others being created somewhere.
google will pay for this local business listing asap, ok now its free, biding will come there like adwords, webmasters can do nothing, all web pages are going to destroy by this type RDF technology. look http://wolframalpha.com there is no web pages but you will get answer. you can play youtube video from bing search result page so whats benefit for youtube? think fastly and start some farm to just eat something, all business is going to work out automatically .... we can sleep now.
u r right but google serves easy ,quick and direct to the poor peple and rich both.everybody can use the goole facilities directly
Very backwards thinking by thread starter. Google local business did a great thing, for everyone. It's easier than ever to find local businesses now. People like you would argue that if I threw a rock at a store's window, I would actually be helping society because now someone can be hired to clean up the mess, someone can be hired to make a new window and another person can be hired to install that window. In reality the store owner loses money that could have been spent somewhere else. Anyway, no point in trying to teach basic capitalism here on DP. =p
Hello, Local Listings is the wave of the future. It is not only about web searches, but also a convergence of local listings data with mobile devices. Mobile marketing is going to get a big boost from this process. When people are out and about and need to find "anything" they will be able to find it based on their current geography. Coupons, Offers and Discounts will all be available through mobile devices and mobile applications based on local listing data. This process will not stop here though. Consumers will be able to post their reviews from Twitter or directly onto a local listing review as they leave a local store or business. Now the local business will have be sure to monitor these local listings. Yes, I did say "listings" plural. While Google is the 800lb gorilla "on" the web, in the mobile space will not only be Google. Mobile application developers will be the ones to decide which local listing data they will use. For this reason, local business will need to consider having their listings up to date on more than just Google...Yahoo, Bing, Ask, Local.com, Yelp and many more....oh yeah, and monitor their reviews at all these locations too. Something we recently read at KillerStartUps are companies that are offering a low cost service to update then manage these listings for companies. You can read about this at KillerStartUps here: http://www.killerstartups.com/Search/smartfindslocallisting-com-be-found-online It is a changing world and the local business will benefit. There will be some adjustments required by everyone.