SEO Werkt!

The social driving app Waze is collecting its fair share of suitors. Google is reportedly in talks to acquire the company for more than $1 billion, Bloomberg reports, following a report from a few weeks ago that Facebook was eyeing Waze.

It sounds like Waze could be setting itself up for a bidding war between the two companies, especially since it likely sees itself more valuable than Instagram’s $1 billion purchase price. Other suitors may also join in — Microsoft has reportedly invested in Waze, and the driving app would be a good addition to its Bing Maps.

Waze lets drivers crowdsource driving conditions and other data with its mobile apps, which can often give a better indication of traffic than other systems. The company may also choose to stay independent and raise another round of funding, Bloomberg notes. Palo Alto, Calif.-based Waze has raised $67 million so far from Kleiner Perkins, BluerRun Ventures, Magma Venture Partners, and others.

For now, though, the two main contenders for Waze seem to be  Facebook and Google. I’m rooting for Google.

Facebook has no experience with mapping yet, which means it could be some time before it fully taps into Waze’s potential. While snapping up the driving app would be a good way for Facebook to kick-start its mapping ambitions (and it would also work well on top of Facebook’s recent local search focus), for Waze it could actually be a step back in terms of its overall focus.

Google, on the other hand, has years of mapping experience — expertise that became clear when Apple tried its hand at maps in iOS 6 with disastrous results. Waze would fit nicely into Google Maps’ mobile turn-by-turn directions, but there’s also a huge amount of potential for the company in Google’s moonshot projects. Imagine Google’s self-driving cars autonomously reporting driving conditions, or Waze integration with Google Glass to give pedestrians the ability to contribute to Waze’s data as well.

Waze’s social elements may seem better suited to Facebook right now, but that’s something Google is getting better at as well. If Waze wants to continue down the road of becoming an essential mapping solution, Google seems like the ideal mate.

Photo: Devindra Hardawar/VentureBeat

Filed under: Business, Deals, Mobile, Social

Spotted via Hacker News a site named geoguessr is an addictive guessing game that has you look at Google Street View imagery and you click on the Google Map to say where that image was taken from…

Jade Wang from Google posted in the Google Business Help forum an FAQs on what to do if you are having technical issues with your Google Maps reviews.

She answers 11 different questions related to this topic…

Jade Wang from Google posted in the Google Business Help forum an FAQs on what to do if you are having technical issues with your Google Maps reviews.

She answers 11 different questions related to this topic. Here are the questions, but if you want the answers, check the Google Business Help forum thread.

1. Where did my reviews go?

2. How do I know which of the above reasons is affecting my listing?

3. How do I get them back on my listing?

4. Where are my owner responses?

5. That review is clearly fake, written by an ex-employee, etc. â” how can I get it removed from my listing?

6. Why are the reviews on my listing not related to my business?

7. One of the links in âReviews from around the webâ is wrong â” itâs going to a page of reviews about an unrelated business. How do I get rid of it?

8. Why canât my customer leave a review?

9. How can I report inappropriate/spammy reviews?

10. Iâve reported a review on my listing, but itâs still there. Why wonât you remove it?

11. But none of these questions address the issue Iâm experiencing?

Forum discussion at Google Business Help.

Spotted via Hacker News a site named geoguessr is an addictive guessing game that has you look at Google Street View imagery and you click on the Google Map to say where that image was taken from.

For example, if you see a street view image of Time Square, if you click on New York City, you will guess right. Well, there is never any wrong guesses.

You are scrolled based on how far away you click from the actual location of that street view image. The closer you click to that location, the more points you score.

Here is an example of what the scores look like:

You can see other people’s scores at Hacker News and as Matt Cutts commented there, “Warning: it’s pretty addictive.” Indeed.

Forum discussion at Hacker News.

Last week at the Google I/O developer conference, a newly redesigned Google Maps design was introduced. While a number of online commentators have virtually gushed about the new interfacing from an end user perspective, there may be a less-than-rosy view for many local businesses. Thus far, the new…



Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article.

Remember when Google took over Zagat and then announced they are dropping the star reviews for businesses…

Remember when Google took over Zagat and then announced they are dropping the star reviews for businesses? Well, Google announced on Google Business Help that the five star system is coming back to the new Google Maps interface.

Jade Wang, a Google Maps representative, said “today, with the launch of the new Google Maps, we announced a change to the way people rate businesses on Google on the Google and Your Business blog.”

Google uses a 30 point scale for rating businesses but now instead of using the text representation of it, they will be using stars. Here is how it is converted.

Forum discussion at Google Business Help.

As we expected, Google introduced the new Google Maps interface and features at Google I/O.
The new maps are no longer a “static map” but now the maps are “immersively interactive” said…

Jane Wang from Google announced in the Google Business Help forums that you can now make a request for Google to move your businesses reviews from one listing to another…