Recently, two of our Innkeeper clients (Sue from The Inn at Harbour Ridge Bed and Breakfast in Missouri and Amy from Country Inn and Cottages in Texas) notified us that they had received bright yellow envelopes from Google, with letters explaining that they were chosen as "A Favorite Place on Google" which also included a window sticker with a little black box in it.
This is new and exciting! In September 2009, Google launched it's new "Place Pages". These pages are related to Google Maps locations. They are not dependent on Google Local Business Listings, but they do pull information from Local Listings, so it does behoove you to keep your local business listing up to date. According to Google, The Favorite Places designation is "based on Google users' interaction with local business listings". So, if lots of people have found your local business listing, looked up driving directions, used your map, etc, you may receive a Favorite Place letter and sticker.
So, what about that Sticker? It looks like this:
You can see the little black box in the corner. This is a very cool piece of technology. The little box is called a QR code and can be scanned into mobile phones which are equipped with a camera and QR software (to get the download, search Google with your phone model and "QR reader"). This will take the mobile phone user to the business or location's Place Page, where they can get more information about the business, read reviews, even download coupons put in place through Local Business Center!
Google is ever-changing, growing and yet making the world a smaller place through new technology. Congratulations to our customers who have achieved "Google Favorite Place" status!
Annie Buck
Acorn Marketing
