Not too long after writing about the Google Local Business Center, Google have made a few changes to the product and relaunched it as ‘Google Places’.
In the past, setting up local business listings for mobile or home based businesses was quite difficult. A street address was required, and if you tried to obscure this from the public by deleting it there would be problems with map location, and verifying by postcard became impossible. This is no longer the case with Google Places which allows you to hide your address, and if you’re a mobile business you can actually define the limits of your service area on the map.
There are a few more features on the horizon including ‘tags’ – small icons that will help you stand out on the map – but you’ll have to pay for these.