Google Adds Twitter-Like Status Updates to Place Pages

Google is betting hard on Place Pages and, since launch in September 2009, has been constantly updating and improving the feature. Now, in another clear move to get ahead in the local businesses market, it has enabled business owners to claim their Places and even post small updates to them. The idea is to get small entrepreneurs hooked on the service, which is linked to Google Local Business Center, hopefully leading to users becoming more interested in Place Pages and businesses buying more ads from Google.

"If you're a local business owner, we've just added two new features that can help you reach existing and potential customers even more effectively on your business' Place Page. Both of these features are available by claiming your business through Google Local Business Center," Jana Urban, Nick Dower, and Lori Meiskey from the Google Place Page team wrote.

The first one, and the most interesting for the businesses and users alike, is the ability to post short messages on Place Pages. Borrowing from Twitter, the messages can only be 160 characters long, but they should be enough for what the feature was designed to do, announcing special events, promotions and any other kind of information the customers might find useful.

Owners have to be logged into their Local Business Center accounts and can post the updates from their dashboard. The messages automatically expire in 30 days and there is the possibility to remove them at any time if they become irrelevant.

The second big feature, somewhat related to the first one, is the addition of a 'verified account' badge which would show up on the Place Page when the owner claims it. Again, similar to Twitter's Verified Accounts, the idea is to reassure users that the information on the page is accurate and coming straight from the authorized persons. Google Place Pages is quickly becoming a powerful product and a clear competitor in the local business market and, after failing to acquire Yelp despite advanced talks, it looks like Google will have to place all of its bets on its own service.