Google Rolls Out Places - put your place on the map

Via Google LAt/Long blog, Google has today rebranded Google Local business center as Google Places. Now with millions of listings, here comes the revenue model – think Freeminum! About Places… Place Pages connect people to information from the best sources across the web, displaying photos, reviews and essential facts, as well as real-time updates and offers from business owners. Google reports that some 4 million place pages have already been claimed (if you have a business you should claim yours) and now the company is offering advertising opportunities enabling business owners to get higher or premium page listings (starting at $25 per month). One option I really like is that Google is enabling business owners to easily grab a custom QR code (although I suspect many owners will have no idea what a QR code is!!) then they can display it on premises so smartphone users equipped with a barcode scanner can easily scan the code. You can access Google Places at http://www.google.com/lbc