SmallBusinessNewz

Google Announces Rich Snippets Progress

If the idea of influencing what shows up when your business appears as a search result on Google appeals to you, the search giant's taken a step that should prove quite useful.  To be precise: Google's added support for microdata for use in rich snippets.

Taking A Look At Google Apps Marketplace

Google, the company which is known for their in-house apps has expanded to help third-party developers sell their applications. Earlier this week, Google launched the Google Apps Marketplace. The service acts much like other downloadable services you use, i.e - iTunes App Store, Android App store. After putting Google Apps Marketplace through the proverbial paces, this is one service to keep an eye on.

St. Patrick's Day Spending Estimates Up

St. Patrick's Day should be a slightly more festive - and profitable - occasion this year than it was in 2009.  The National Retail Federation, working together with BIGresearch, forecast that consumers will spend more money to celebrate the holiday, with young people being particularly likely to get in the spirit.

Study: Online Media Essential To Local Shopping

Small business owners who have worked hard to create sites, use social media, and proofread info on services like Google Maps should be pleased to know their effort's likely to pay off.  BIA/Kelsey and ConStat have determined that 97 percent of consumers use online media when shopping locally.

Advertising on Social Networks: Worth it?

Social media is about conversations. That's the line we've been fed time and time again. There's nothing wrong with it. It's the truth. For marketers and businesses looking to utilize the tools and social networks out there, it will probably serve them well to remember that, but it has often been suggested that directly marketing and trying to sell your product through social networks is in bad taste. That is a topic that probably isn't so cut and dry.

Local Business Listings With Bing

When WebProNews headed to SMX West in Santa Clara, they caught up with Mikko Ollila, Senior Product Manager on Bing Local, to discuss a little bit about Bing's experience and intentions in local search.

UK May Regulate Social Media Ads

The UK's Advertising Association and Advertising Standard Authority is poised to sweep away any remaining questions about whether or not social media is a serious business.  The AA has recommended that the ASA be granted more influence over online marketing communications, including those made on social networks.

Optimizing for Media Coverage

Lee Odden of TopRank Online Marketing recently spoke on a panel at the Online Marketing Summit about the intersection of social, search, and public relations. He talked a bit about this concept with WebProNews in an interview.

Forrester Predicts 10% Growth Rate For Online Retail

There's good news this afternoon for small business owners who sell things online: Forrester Research believes the online retail sector will continue to take off, making the U.S. market alone worth about $250 billion by 2014.

Yelp Responds To Extortion Allegations

Last week, we wrote about a lawsuit that'd been filed against Yelp.  The suit alleged that Yelp representatives would sometimes offer to remove negative reviews if businesses would buy ads.  Now, the CEO of Yelp has fired back (several times, actually), but a second suit's been filed, too.