Google Local Business Center Becomes “Google Places”

On April 19th, Google Local Business Center became Google Places.  According to their press release,

Why? Millions of people use Google every day to find places in the real world, and we want to better connect Place Pages – the way that businesses are being found today – with the tool that enables business owners to manage their presence on Google.

To date, Four million businesses have already claimed their Place Page on Google through the Local Business Center.

What’s new?

• Service areas: If you travel to serve customers, you can now show which geographic areas you serve.  And if you run a business without a storefront or office location, you can now make your address private.

• A new, simple way to advertise: For just $25 per month, businesses in select cities can make their listings stand out on Google.com and Google Maps with Tags. As of today, we’re rolling out Tags to three new cities — Austin, Atlanta and Washington, D.C. — in addition to ongoing availability in Houston and San Jose, CA. In the coming weeks we’ll also be introducing Tags in Chicago, San Diego, Seattle, Boulder, and San Francisco.

• Business photo shoots: In addition to uploading your own photos, businesses in select cities can now request a free photo shoot of the interior of their business which we’ll use to supplement existing photos of businesses on Place Pages. We’ve been experimenting with this over the past few months, and now have created a site (note: live as of 9pm PDT) for businesses to learn more and express their interest in participating.

• Customized QR codes: From the dashboard page of Google Places, businesses in the U.S. can download a QR code that’s unique to their business, directly from their dashboard page. QR codes can be placed on business cards or other marketing materials, and customers can scan them with certain smartphones to be taken directly to the mobile version of the Place Page for that business.

• Favorite Places: We’re doing a second round of our Favorite Places program, and are mailing window decals to 50,000 businesses around the US. These decals include a QR code that can be scanned with a smartphone to directly view the mobile Place Page for the business to learn more about their great offerings.

So, the most interesting new feature, to me, is the $25/mo for paid placement.  Hmm… I don’t know about that one.  Before I make my mind up, I want to see that in action.  Just as interesting though is Google’s offer for free pro photography of the interior of the business.  Who will Google use to come take pictures?  Are they paying them?  Why would a pro photographer do this?  I wonder if in the back of their mind, they are terrified of what Google can do in regards to positioning the photographer’s website in the SERPs?  I can see where this is going- I need to take a step back from the big brother and conspiracy theory that Google is really Skynet.