search | Mapsys.info (8) Mapsys.info

Google Related- Find More

Almost every time I go online, I come across some new topic or item that I’d like to learn more about. Sometimes it’s as simple as the latest buzz on the new shop down the street. Other times it’s something more significant, like a counterpoint to an opinion piece I’m reading. While the answer can be just a simple search away, we wanted to find a way to get some of those answers to you even faster. Now with Google Related, a new Chrome Extension and Google Toolbar feature, you’ll automatically see interesting content relevant to what’s on the page you’re viewing, right where you’re viewing it.

Whether you’re reading a news article, shopping for a new pair of shoes or visiting your favorite musician’s website, Google Related works in the background to find you the most interesting and relevant content on the topics you’re currently viewing. For example, if you visit a restaurant’s website, Related can show you a map, reviews from Google Places, mentions from across the web and other similar eateries that you might want to try.

Results will display in a thin bar at the bottom of your screen, and will remain minimized until you hover over them with your mouse. Once selected, they’ll open up immediately in your browser window, saving you the trouble of having to open multiple new windows or tabs. If Google Related shows you something you’re interested in, you can let others know using the built-in +1 button.

In order to offer you relevant suggestions, Related sends the URL and other available information about the pages you visit back to Google. If you’re interested in how that data is used and stored, you can learn more here and here.

If you decide you’d rather not see the Related bar, you can easily hide it for specific pages and sites through the Options menu. If you use Related as part of Google Toolbar, you can disable Related entirely through the Options menu as well.

Google Related is available both as a Chrome Extension in the Chrome Web Store and as a new feature in Google Toolbar for Internet Explorer. Visit www.google.com/related to learn more and to get Google Related today.

Some New Updates to the Bing Maps Account Center

If you manage data sources in Bing Maps then you know we’ve made several updates to the Bing Maps Account Center and the REST Web Services in the last few weeks. We released more changes to the Bing Maps Account Center including bug-fixes, improved usability and some new features for the management of your own points of interest (POI) in the cloud. The top 3 improvements are:

1. Direct Publishing of Data Sources
Management of your own data sources in the cloud is generally possible through the Bing Spatial Data Service API as well as through the Bing Maps Account Center. The Bing Spatial Data Service provides a comprehensive set of REST APIs for batch geocoding and reverse geocoding your own POI data sets, uploading them into the Bing Maps data centers, and querying them.

In the past one of the major advantages of the Bing Spatial Data Service over the user interface in the Bing Maps Account Center has been that you were in full control of the data flow. You could decide if you wanted to geocode a data set first or if you just wanted to upload an already geocoded data set. The user interface in the Bing Maps Account Center did not give you that flexibility and would have always geocoded or reverse geocoded your data sets. This could have been particularly unpleasant if you moved your already geocoded data set, for example, from the MapPoint Web Service Customer Data Store or the Multimap Client Zone to Bing Maps. In that case the process behind the user interface would have taken the latitudes and longitudes in your data set, reverse geocoded them, and then would overwrite the address information. With the latest update to the Bing Maps Account Center this limitation has been removed and you are now in full control whether you use the API or the user interface.

To just upload a data set, check the box Publish without geocoding.

2. Map Navigation for Data Editing
Editing records in a data set has been possible before. However, in order to view the location of a record in the map you always had to click the Edit link. With the latest release you can just mouse over a record and it will show on the map, thus allowing you to have a quick look to decide if editing is necessary at all.

3. Enhanced POI Data Search
You can now search for any field in the data set even if it is part of the address or a custom field. This feature has been available in the API before, but is now also available in the user interface.

We hope these updates improve your experience with Bing Maps and spatial data services. We are continuing to enhance these services and expand all they can do. Stay tuned for more information coming soon.

Local Adwords Ads Dominate

This morning I spoke of the Google Hotel experiment that made search results into interactive local content. It is not clear if this is the new normal or a test but on this search for bed and breakfast St. Augustine and every hotel search, Adwords with Location Extensions and Adwords Express are now showing as interactive local content on hotel searches. No non local ads need apply.

By changing the dates of the visit, a hotel searcher remains on the search results page and sees a changing display display of local hotels that one presumes are available during those dates. The local ads, dominating the page, either point to the Places page with the booking tool as opposed to the hotel website or provide an instant choice to book via Google’s Hotel booking ad via on the online travel agencies.

The highest blended result is now below the fold and with it, the first link to TripAdvisor or any 3rd party review site.

Whoah dude! Must be that Google doesn’t think organic results can be as useful to searchers as ads.

(Click to view larger)