Google enhances Mobile.Google.com with Local search
Google recently enhanced Google Mobile with Local Search, adding similar functionality to local.google.com to their mobile application. What does this mean for vertical search? I can say for a fact (this moment, not the future) that community-based and individual efforts usually outweigh Google's attempts at seeking out local points of interest. The one thing Google has going for it (good or bad) is that it scrapes those community-based or individual sites and includes the information there in it's local results.
When is Google going to give some real love to all the sites that create the content it uses to provide such accurate results? In my case, Bobafind.com consists of hundreds of listings for Bubble Tea cafes, a rather obscure search. My site visitors have submitted many, and any time I come across a new location, I add it to my database. Along comes GoogleBot and BAM! all of my hard won locations are now part of Google Local! Do I get anything in return? Well, sort of. A non-rank-increasing link from Google. I guess it could be worse. Anyone got any ideas to get a few bucks out of this?

3 Comments:
Have you tried contacting google about this?
I think you totally deserve credit (and/or a few bucks) for your work. I was so excited to find bobafind.com, and it has been amazingly useful for me. I hope you can get something out back from google. I don't think it's fair at all for them to take advantage of your work like that. Just my two cents.
Yeah, I guess you haven't been on here in a while. Of course, you haven't gotten onto your forum lately, either...
I've sent you and Yonny messages saying that you guys really need to come back. This is urgent and you need to do this ASAP. I don't know whether or not you'll get this message, and I didn't know where else to put it, but bad stuff is happening on your forum and we need you guys now.
I'll just say it involves XboxG2K.
I hope you get this message. Although I'm not holding my breath, since I don't know how often you check stuf like this on your blog, and your latest entry seems to be from the past summer.
I hope that you are doing well, and that you decide to come back to your forum.
Merry Christmas 2005
Lord Delacroix
I wish I had found your website a little bit earlier. I was visiting Portlnad/Vancouver area during the past 4 days and I was dying for a cup of Boba tea. I finally found a Boba Tea shop after driving the area for a while. I'm just now finding this website as I am sitting at Portland International Airport, how ironic. but I will definitly keep your site around since I might relocate here :D Great Job on the website.
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