SmallBusinessNewz

Spock might not approve, but here's a reasonably logical statement: as the number of people who know a business's location increases, the better the business will do.  And now the Google Local Business Center is helping to make sure businesses' addresses are more or less common knowledge.

Yep, the same Google offering that offered small businesses a virtual hand last week is back again.  A post on the Google Base Blog explains, "[W]e've begun experimenting with exposing store locations in Google Product Search, and we'd like to invite you to participate.  We think this will help users find nearby store locations, and help merchants get foot traffic into their stores."

Participation is free, of course.  In fact, about all owners have to do is submit their stores' locations on the Google Local Business Center site.  Then just accept Google's phone calls (or postcards) as the company verifies that everything's legitimate.

Now, admittedly, it might not be every day that someone searches for a product on Google and then decides to drop by your store.  But in the long term, the development seems likely to benefit participants, and (so long as you're not neglecting something else to pursue this) even one sale is still a sale.

Meanwhile, it's hard not to be excited about whatever Google may plan to announce next.