With the launch of Google Maps Navigation (only on Android phones for now but rumoured to be coming for iPhone too), Google has taken a swing at the GPS sector. Companies like Tom Tom ought to be quaking at this one, because with Google’s system, there is easy search (no need for address), voice search, real-time traffic info, and even street views, thanks to Google’s photography within cities (of course, this feature will only work where the Google cam-cars have been). But the killer punch: It’s free.
Now, you can debate whether you really want your phone to also be your iPod and now your GPS, but you can rest assured Google will make the usability experience as good as possible, and that people will start using Google to navigate around unfamiliar places whether on foot or by car. Why pay for GPS maps when it is all there for nothing?
The business take-home? Now, more than ever, it is essential to have your business listed in Google’s Local Business Center, assuming there is a geographical element to what you do (even if not, if anyone ever visits you at your premises, it is a good idea ).
Even without the new rule-changing GPS development, when you type say “hotel in Nantes” into your mobile phone browser’s Google, as I did last week, it gives you immediate links to contact details of the relevant local business, taken directly from Google’s Local Business Center. If you’re not there, you miss out on this free traffic for your business.
So take the time to update your Local Business Center entries and let Google carry on thinking of innovative new ways to display them to interested parties on your behalf.
by Phil Morse