Google has just made planning date night easier by updating its movie search feature. If you type a movie name into the search bar, you will automatically get your local theaters and show times in the 1^st spot of the search results.

If you type in a theater name, you will get all the show times at that location.

Google has also updated its google.com/movies feature, now providing us much more detailed information about the movie and the localtions. Check out the example below.

The newest features are:

More comprehensive movie pages with detailed layouts.

Genre Filters.

Map view to see all the locations playing a particular film in your area.

As we enter the flu season and the Swine Flu death toll grows, many of us (myself included) are scrambling to find the nearest flu vaccine. Google has added a new element to their search features to do just that. Amen.

To Utilize this new function simply visit www.google.com/flushot and enter the city that you would like to search. I searched Irvine and got the map below.

Google has even taken the liberty to indicate which vaccines are available at these locations by using different colored syringes as location marks. What is not provided to us however, is weather or not these locations have these vaccines in stock.  Due to the shortage of the  H1N1 flu vaccine in particular, I suggest calling to confirm availability rather than just showing up.

The Search war between Google, Yahoo and Bing has reached new levels as the three conglomerates begin bribing users with free Wi-Fi. Each of the three has taken a somewhat different approach in doing so, yet the result is consistent. Users are somehow required to use the search engine’s services in exchange for free Wi-Fi.

Google will be offering free Wi-Fi to 47 major US airports through the end of the year and in some locations indefinitely. In exchange, Google will ask each user to change their homepage to Google upon login. They will also be running a charity campaign for three nonprofit organizations and will match donations up to $250,000.00 per airport.

Bing and JiWire will also be offering free Wi-Fi at airport and hotel hotspot locations around the country. In order to connect however, the user will have to perform a search on the engine.

Lastly, Yahoo has begun to provide New Yorkers with free Wi-Fi in New York’s Time Square.

According to this recent post made in the Google Mobile Blog, Google has partnered up with Best Buy to increase awareness of the Google Mobile App.

Google Mobile Blog:

“We’re happy to announce today that we’ve partnered with Best Buy Mobile to make Google Mobile App available through Best Buy stores in the US . . . now [users] have the option to get some help installing the app or to see a live demo of what the application can do. Just go to the mobile department at your nearest Best Buy store and talk to an associate. If you have a BlackBerry, Windows Phone, or S60 phone, they can help install Google Mobile App on your phone. And if you’re in the market to buy a new phone, they will help you install the application as part of their Walk Out Working program.”

For you Google fans that have yet to use the Google Mobile App, some of the features it includes are; Google Docs, Google Calendar, Google Talk, Goog411, Google Maps, Google News, Google Notebook, Google Reader, YouTube, iGoogle, Blogger and most importantly Google Search. The Search feature is broken down into several sub-categories including Local, Images, News, Shopping and Wikipedia to cater to users of every nature. The Local search function asks for a name, provides a colorful Google map with points of interest, and then company information about the point selected.  Google has also recently added a voice recognition feature to help those of us without navigation.

My brother, who is currently working at a Best Buy store, was able to shed a little light on the partnership and how it is carried out in the store. The phones sold at best buy come with the Google Mobile App already installed. If you are having trouble installing the app on your phone, an associate in the phone department will help you do so (even if the phone was not purchased at Best Buy). If you have the app, and don’t use it or simply find it confusing, an associate will give you a lengthy demo for the various features. Never Fear…..Best Buy will turn you into a Google Pro in no time! What he didn’t know is whether the associates received any spiffs for doing so.

There have been some recent changes to the Physical Location Guidelines for business listings in Google Maps. While they seem to be rather vague one thing has been made clear. PO Boxes are considered unverifiable by Google and will be labeled as such. I truly don’t think that it’s Google’s intention to blackball business owners whom choose to hide their physical location; however, this is what will essentially occur until they fork over a new solution.

The changes are below, compare and decide for yourself.

Old guidelines

• Provide information that best identifies your individual locations and provides users with the most direct path to your business.
• Create only one listing for each physical location of your business.
• Service area businesses, for example, should not create a listing for every town they service.
• Likewise, law firms or doctors should not create multiple listings to cover all of their specialties.
• the precise address for the business in place of broad city names or cross-streets.

New Guidelines

• Do not create listings at locations where the business does not physically exist.
• PO Boxes do not count as physical locations.
• Do not create more than one listing for each business location, either in a single account or multiple accounts.
• Businesses that operate in a service area as opposed to a single location should not create a listing for every city they service. Service area businesses should create one listing for the central office of the business only.
• Businesses with special services, such as law firms and doctors, should not create multiple listings to cover all of their specialties.
• The precise address for the business must be provided in place of broad city names or cross-streets.
• A property for rent is not considered a place of business. Please create one listing for the central office that processes the rentals.

The Google Team has begun taking strides towards improving the friendliness of Google Maps by adding a couple key links. Yay!

The first and most exciting of the two is the new “report a problem link”. Until now, there has been little to no support offered to Google users who discovered problems in the Maps section. It was difficult enough just to figure out how to report a problem; to expect any type of response regarding the problem would have been crazy indeed. Now, there are reports that The Google Maps Team is actually responding to customer complaints with an email that indicates a timeframe in which the issue will be resolved. Amazing! No more guessing games with the Google Maps customer service department.

The second, a “see your listing” link, has been added to each profile in the Local Business Center. Shady Search Engine Optimization companies beware: at the click of a button, business owners can easily see if their business is in the maps section or not. We are now one step closer to keeping some of these inexperienced companies accountable for their promises.

Most SEO marketers don’t even look at Google Local’s guidelines.  Here are some of the new changes: The legal businesses name must be listed. Marketers cannot add in anymore keywords into the businesses name if it is not the legal name. An example of this might be a Plumber in Los Angeles cannot list his business name as Plumber in Los Angeles.   No more P.O. Boxes listed. All businesses must show their actual address. We all new this would come to an end at some point.  Any properties for rent must not be listed as businesses in the local showcase. And last of all Google is asking for email addresses to show domains rather than Yahoo, Bing and Gmail addresses. Example: support@yahoo.com would not work. support@PlumberinLosAngeles.com would be more appropriate.