Google has recently updated its Place pages by removing third party online reviews. There are a variety of reasons for this, but one significant reason is likely due to an ongoing anti trust suit filed against Google. One of the issues was that Google places used reviews from Yelp, Tripadvisor, and other review sites which helped Google provide more value for the places product. But the bigger issue was when Google then started showing Google Places higher up in the rankings over these same sites they were pulling content from. In addition, the recent explosion in review generation on google directly is a contributing factor (“we don’t need your stinkin’ reviews!”). Not anymore anyway.    

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“It’s a bird”! “No, it’s a plane”! “No, it’s another Social Media site”! “What are we going to do with this”?! This may be what local businesses are saying about Google + when they heard about the new social media site. Google + is a modernized Facebook. It takes staying connected to an all new technological level. Between the group video chats, huddles, and the automatic picture uploads, Google+ could take social media to the next generation.

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