14 DAY TRIAL // Google is continuing to build its Places service which is quickly turning into a major player in the local web arena. The latest new feature is City Pages, pages dedicated to some of the cities where Google has a bigger presence on the ground, initially for its Hotpot experiment and now with Offers. The new city pages are a central place for all the things from Google related to that certain city.
"We’re excited to introduce our new community city pages. Now you can get up to date info about all things Google happening in Portland, Austin, San Diego and Madison," Cecelia Stewart, Local Marketing Team at Google, wrote.
"On these sites, you'll be able to browse a list of some of the top businesses recommended by Portland locals by rating, by category ('Restaurant'), and by filter ('Family-Friendly')," she added.
"You'll find a page featuring the latest news about the Google Places community, as well as a list of upcoming Google events in that city," she said.
The new city pages feature a list of the most popular and highly recommended places in that city, based on the Place Pages for each business and user reviews, from Google and elsewhere. You can start narrowing down your selection with the number of filters and categories available on that page.
But there's more to city pages, you can also get a list of upcoming events, which you can add to your Google Calendar, and also the latest Twitter updates from the local Google team.
In places where it's available, only Portland for now, there is also a Google Offers tab which enables you to check out the daily deal in that city. On the Community tab, you get the latest blog updates from Google.
Business owners can also edit their Place Pages from the same spot. Overall, the new portal has the potential of becoming a great way of finding out what's happening in your city and places you can go to, but Google still has some work to do to get there.