If you run a business where customers come for your product or services in person, a good move can be adding your company to Google Maps.
It absolutely doesn’t matter whether your company has a website.
Google has developed a system for mobile phones — Google Navigator — that helps users find a destination and also shows what venues, companies, and stores are nearby.
A new Google patent describes the possibility of new navigation system features. Through them, the user’s personal information (contact lists, calendar, task lists) will be combined with Google’s navigation system. So if the user creates new tasks or contacts, when using Google Navigator the map will show places that may relate to those tasks or contacts. For example, the nearest restaurant if the user has scheduled a restaurant meeting, or a new partner’s office location if the user added them to contacts.
For now Google Navigator doesn’t have such a suggestion function, but it may one day be implemented. In any case, regional search is reason enough to add your company to Google Maps.
Below we look in slightly more detail at the system of geocoding personal information in Google.
The system can work with mobile phones, automotive navigation systems, PDAs, and laptops.
Personal data that can be integrated with the navigation system may be stored in web apps (Google Maps, Google Docs, Google Calendar) or in programs installed on a computer or mobile phone.
If task lists use terms like “post office”, “supermarket”, “restaurant”, etc., the system searching for these locations can search by those terms or their synonyms. The system can also restrict search to a certain radius from the user’s current location and filter the contacts the user wants displayed on the map. This generates a map of the area showing places desirable and useful to the user — thus optimising time spent finding a place.
In addition, the navigation system can be combined with a recommendation system. The recommendation service can include recommendations for films, music, books, and various places (restaurants, hotels, hair salons) displayed on the map.
In summary, both now and in the future, adding companies, stores, and various venues to Google Maps is a great move — both for promoting the site that presents your services and growing the business, and for users, who gain more options and convenience.
