When you find a business on Google Maps and click "more info", you will be taken to that business’ "Place Page." These are the pages that Google introduced a while back that essentially gather content related to that particular business in one place. One might find photos, coupons, reviews, etc. on the Place Page.

Google has started including Place Pages in Google Earth. Place Pages are the pages that Google sets up for places and businesses that have been accessible via Google Maps for a little while. They incorporate photos, videos, reviews and other content about that particular business or place, into one spot.

In a recent article, we discussed ways the local search landscape is changing. Add another one to the list, because now Google is sending brick and mortar businesses decals to put on their windows, with barcodes that people can scan with their phones to bring up business listings on Google.

Local search is only one sliver of the search marketing game, but it is an increasingly important one, and one that is changing rapidly. These days people are going to the web to find local businesses, sometimes more than even the phone book. Having a presence in local search is imperative for any small business, but just as imperative is being able to compete for visibility.

Euro RSCG released some interesting findings from a study exploring the different ways Americans are using social media to "redefine their lives." The study looked at 1,228 social media users in the United States.

Back in the summer, Twitter announced that it was working on an API to give developers the ability to geotag tweets. The company has now made that available.

There is no geotagging on Twitter.com yet, but Twitter apps will now be able to support it. So potentially, you will be able to geotag tweets and show the location from where you tweeted.

comScore has released the results of a study on locally targeted online display ads in the US, which focused on four major markets: Atlanta, Chicago, San Francisco, and Washington D.C. In these areas, the results indicate that about 10% of all display ads are locally targeted.

"Locally targeted ads are an increasingly important component of the digital ad landscape because they represent a more efficient allocation of ad dollars," said comScore vice president Brian Jurutka. Here’s a look at some additional numbers:

The number of U.S. searches grew 31 percent across all media platforms between June 2008 and June 2009 (21.9 billion searches in June 2009), according to a new study by TMP Directional Marketing.

Search engines continue to be the main source for local business information. Local search sites increased slightly in usage, from 11 percent in 2008 to 12 percent in 2009. Also Internet yellow page sites gained ground as primary sources of local business information, from 19 percent usage last year to 21 percent this year.

Google has introduced a new type of ad for local businesses called Local Listing Ads. They are designed to display when users search for a business in its local area. Google says it’s the easiest way to advertise your business to local customers on Google, because they require no maintenance. 

Google has people riled up with its latest local search effort Google Place Pages. Place Pages are a Google Maps feature launched last week, 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.

Google has launched a new version of local search for mobile. This version heavily utilizes Google Maps to make organization of results easier on your phone.

The new local search for mobile lets you find business listings on Google Maps while you’re on your computer, where you can "star" them. Once you star them, you can easily find your starred listings grouped together from your phone, making it easy to keep the listings you need while you’re out, together. This can potentially make errand running a lot easier, as demonstrated in the video below.

The 2009 TechCrunch 50 conference was held this week, and 50 start-ups each had a chance to make a presentation, and then the judges picked one grand-prize winner at the end of the whole thing to win $50,000.

The winner this year, was a company called Redbeacon, which just happens to have been founded by three ex-Googlers – Ethan Anderson, Yaron Binur, and Aaron Lee, who were product managers and engineers with the Internet giant.

AT&T Interactive has announced an updated version of its YellowPages.com YPMobile app for the iPhone. The new version has a couple of new features that focus on the discovery, planning, and sharing of local businesses and events – video profiles and Pay Per Calls ads.

You’ve had dozens (or possibly hundreds) of articles about how to use Twitter for your businesses hurled at you over the last year or so. There are a lot of good ideas, a lot of bad ones, and a lot of contradictions. What do you expect though? The marketing world is still trying to figure this whole social media thing out. Some are having great success, and some are just wasting a lot of time.

Google has now made it easier to view businesses in Street View on Google Maps. When a user conducts a local search, the bubble that pops up on business results will show a Street View link.

Users can click on that link and see the business marked with a 3D marker in Street View, just like the one you’d find on the map. When you click the marker, details about the business are shown right within Street View.

Twitterers in Australia will be happy to know that TwellowHood, the Twellow feature that allows Twitterers to connect with people in their own area, is now available in Australia. Previously, it has been available in the US and Canada, and will continued to be expanded to other parts of the world.

YouTube has yet another new—or should I say news?—feature: News Near You.

The next time you want to look up or research a local business, Yahoo intends to be there for you.  Yahoo Shortcuts now display a lot more information right on the regular results pages, which should make the search process less click-intensive and time-consuming.

Today Google announced a new AdWords feature called location extensions. The feature allows advertisers to add dynamic addresses to their ads.

"If you’re a business owner, you can set up extensions by linking an AdWords campaign to your Local Business Center (LBC) account," explains Emel Mutlu of Google’s Inside AdWords Crew. "If you’re not the primary business owner of the locations you’re advertising, you can manually enter addresses directly into AdWords."

Yahoo and AT&T announced a partnership, where AT&T will sell Yahoo! display ad inventory to local businesses in the US. They will begin doing so later this summer.

"Local businesses are looking to drive in-store traffic, and our alliance with AT&T Interactive will help them reach a local audience of highly-engaged potential customers on Yahoo!," said Jim Schinella, Senior Vice President, North America Region, Yahoo!.

As a sports fan I don’t get to write much about sports and Internet marketing. Now that I think about it, I’m not sure why that is but I’ll work on that later. What we have covered extensively here at Marketing Pilgrim is the decline and fall of the Printed Empire; the newspaper. Today, in fact stands to be a rough day again as the Boston Globe workers agrees to more cuts to keep the paper in print.