I recently saw an article in Tech Crunch which described a feature in Google Maps - specifically Google street view - that I didn't know existed. Google maps has always featured businesses denoted by push pins on the map - with a callout so that you could find out more information about the business. That functionality has now been expanded to street view as you can see below.
As you can see above, Leo's Cafe in Lone Tree is highlighted in Google Maps. When looking around in street view, you'll see different icons that you can click to expand a local business listing. In this case, I clicked on a knife and fork icon - and this gave me the Leo's Cafe listing. From street view, I can click to get more information.
Not only do you now get a street level view of the business, you now know for sure that you're looking at the correct business. The callout assists you in finding out more information about the business, including essential information like address, reviews, and more.
Do most consumers look at Google street view when trying to find out information about a business? Probably not. But that doesn't mean that you shouldn't Denver small business owners should ignore this development.
How Does This Help Me Market My Denver Small Business?
This one feature will have little effect on marketing your small business. If you do have a retail presence in Denver metro, this could prove to be a little bit helpful in the future. The real takeaway from Google's continual refinement of Google Places and Google maps is that they are very oriented towards getting retail consumers what they want quickly. You need to get listed in the local areas of all the major search engines (Google, Bing, Yahoo) - and also locally oriented review sites like yelp.com and superpages.com. By making sure you're listed, you'll be able to take advantage of these features as they are rolled out.