WebProNews:
Google has people riled up with its latest local search effort Google Place Pages. Place Pages are a Google Maps feature, which serve the purpose of providing everything you want to know about a place (a city or a business) in one spot.
For example, if you search for a specific restaurant, you should get web pages, directions, reviews, images, street view imagery, business hours, etc. Google lets businesses submit specific categories they want to include.
There is concern from some that Google is trying to eliminate the need for users to leave Google and even visit a small business’ web site. WebProNews reader Doug Stewart, who wonders if this is an “assault against the small business website,” commented, “Google wants people to spend more time on Google. Yahoo wants people to spend more time on Yahoo. Facebook wants people to spend more time on Facebook. Several of these large online “media” [companies] are doing everything in their power to keep the eyeballs on their website (unless you pay them for an outbound link).”
This could theoretically reduce clicks to actual sites, but again, this would just emphasize the need to manage your reputation on your Place Page. Your site is likely to be easily located from the Place Page anyway.
Another interesting factor of Google’s Place Pages is the fact that they have sponsored results on them. This could raise more concerns, such as competing ads showing up on a business’ place page.
Photo by Google.