The Google Places/Google+ Merger

On May 30, Google finally addressed the whispers regarding their plans regarding Google Places. They decided to merge Google+  and Google Places, resulting in the creation of Google+ Local.

According to Google+ expert Linda Buquet, most of the changes now are not currently affecting business owners on a large scale. Former Google Places profiles can still be accessed and managed from the old dashboard. There are, however, some changes in relation to reviews and ratings.

Google+ Local will use the Zagat rating system, a 30 point system, instead of the old five star system. For reviews, people must be logged into their Google+ account to contribute as the pages are part of the Google+ system. Prior reviews will show up as left by a Google user until the person decides to claim the reviews with a Google+ profile.

The merger is designed to make the experience better for users. According to Google, the design of Google+ Local should help users get accurate recommendations based on friends and past ratings. It will also help others find great places. For example, if an individual needed a Long Island personal injury attorney and had an excellent experience, they might give a strong rating on Google+ Local. If a connection on the networking site ever researched attorneys with this expertise, the review left on Google+ would automatically appear in their results.

Google+ Local is definitely going to require a little getting used to for business owners and users. It has strong potential to help businesses find new customers through positive review sharing. On the other hand, people without Google+ accounts may decide not to leave reviews. More changes are on the way, so we will see how well this gets integrated.