Google fires a shot at Yelp; brings Hotpot recommendations to Maps

Image via Wikipedia

Throwing caution to the wind and firing a shot over the bow of Yelp, Google has just announced that it has implemented Hotpot recommendations into Google Maps for your desktop. While it’s not yet perfect, according to the Google Lat Long Blog, “we’ll be building it out over time, making it even easier for you to keep track of your friends’ activities”.

Where will this get really interesting? Look at Google’s near-field communication that it has embedded into the Nexus S. Imagine going into a local venue and having your phone recognize where you are. You’re then given the chance to put a Hotpot recommendation into the system and your friends can immediately see what you think of the place.

Of course, that part is somewhat in the future. For now, it’s still a great recommendation system (and better in some ways than Yelp, even, by our standards) and well worth a try. Want to give it a shot, just head over to Google Hotpot and sign yourself up.

What do we want? A newly-updated version of Google Maps with Hotpot overlays, please.

via thenextweb.com

This is HUGE. Ask me why… 😀

Related Articles

• Google Pushes Hotpot Activity To Maps’ Home Page (searchengineland.com)
• Discover New Places From Your Hotpot Friends on Google Maps (google-latlong.blogspot.com)
• Google Hotpot Smartens Up Local Search, But It’s No Yelp Killer (wired.com)

Most Say No to Government Regulation of Search Engines

Image via Wikipedia

Most Americans give high marks to Internet search engines such as Google, Yahoo and Bing and don’t think the government needs to regulate their responses.

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 77% of Adults say there is no need for government regulation of the way that search engines select the recommendations they provide in response to search inquiries. Just 11% believe such regulation is necessary, while just as many (12%) are not sure. (To see survey question wording, click here).

The most frequent Internet users are the least likely to think regulation is needed for search engine recommendations.

via rasmussenreports.com

 

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