Google continues to enhance its offering for its customers and with their latest update, it seems like Google has heard the cries about how we search for businesses. What I mean is all those times you head to a business to get a quick drink and BOOM! Line out the door.
We’ve all been there.
How to Access the Update
So first off, not all local businesses have had the update applied to their listing. Google says that they are still rolling out the update so some locations will not have the information readily available. To access this information, users just need to type in the business they would like to look up. Once they find the business, they need to click the arrow key in the circle and scroll down to find the information.
Difference Between Unavailable and No Listing At All
During my research with the new update, I came across businesses that didn’t have an option to show a chart. However, some businesses that did feature the chart said “not enough data for [day of the week].”
After some quick questioning with Mike Blumenthal, a thought leader of online local marketing, it seems like if a company has “not enough data” listed, then it means that not enough users are entering the business.
Because the data aggregated is anonymous and has an average number of users, it may have been because ” not enough visits that they could identify without violating privacy” as Mike put it. Of course, right now we don’t know for sure, but this is our assumption for now.
How Google Exactly Does This
Google hasn’t published much information in regards to the update, it hasn’t even given the update a name. What we do know though is that the update uses the same technology that Google Maps uses when it reports traffic on its GPS tool. In Google’s exact words, “the information is based on anonymized and aggregated visits to places from Google users who have opted-in to sharing location data.” What that means, is when your on your Mobile Phone and ask if you want to share your location with Google, they use that data to power tools like this.
Something to remember is that the chart you see is based on historical data and is not real time. All data is anonymous and based on historical trends. So if you go to a store and find out that the line is actually really busy, it simply is an anomaly based on the business’s historical trends.
For some more information about the update, here is an FAQ on behalf of Mike Blumenthal
