You’re not alone if you’ve been spotting little coffee cups on Google Maps and business logos inside Google Maps tack balloons recently…and you’ve also got company if you’ve been wondering what the deal is (to see what we mean, try a search for “barnes and noble new york”). Finally, Google’s come out and said something. They’re calling it Google Local Business Ads Beta, “a new ad type that allows advertisers to promote location-based products and services to interested users worldwide.” It’s currently only supported for brick-and-mortar businesses in the US, the UK and Canada.
They say up to three of the new ads can appear at the bottom of Google Local listings if you enter a “query that matches advertisers’ chosen keywords and business information.” If you want to get in on the action, Search Engine Watch has a superb how-to guide that demonstrates the process of getting a new local business ad up, with a cute icon, your logo and everything.
Elsewhere in local search news SEW also points out a post by Russell Beattie that notes a new feature on MSN Local that lets you send search results to a mobile phone. Well, new to MSN…Yahoo! Local’s had a very similar option for awhile (scroll to the bottom here to see).
