Google Business View Rebrands (Again) PLUS More Maps Changes

[Linda Buquet]

Massive changes coming to Google Business View and Google Street View!

This just in at our PRO Community from John M Lynch

Google Views is to be retired by the end of August

New Street View App to be launched in August to allow single photospheres to be loaded directly to Google Maps

Google Business View is re-branded: Street View | Trusted

All of these will be controlled and hosted in G+

So Google de-couples photos but ties in Street View

Here is the official Google Maps post:

<a href="https://plus.google.com/+GoogleMaps/posts/D4ggyFZwJDe">Google Maps Views</a>

Among Google?s imagery products, we strive to balance what makes sense for you, the pro or enthusiast photographer, with the needs of consumers. Achieving this balance can be a challenge, especially when publishing tools are managed under separate products. So we wanted to share our plans to help streamline our pro photographer tools with the established Street View brand. Here?s a summary of what?s to come in mid-August:

New Street View app
For the first time, in one new app, your profile and photo spheres will be presented alongside those from Google and other contributors, creating a unified Street View gallery designed to bring more visibility to you and your work... (more inside)

Street View | Trusted
In addition to the upcoming app, we're also preparing a set of changes to our sister platform, Google Maps Business View. In mid?August, this certified photographer program will be rebranded as ?Street View | Trusted.? It will remain focused on supporting pro photographers who publish photo spheres to Google Maps, but at that time ? and in direct response to your feedback ? the program will shed many of its stringent requirements in favor of far more accommodating policies. In short, enrollment will be easier, publishing requirements will be simpler, and we?ll improve publishing and editing reliability. High quality imagery will remain a key requirement and distinction for those in the program...

Lots more at link above. I just copies the parts most important to our world.

So Business Photos or Business 3D photos (or whatever the previous name was) changed to Google Maps Business View and now will be rebranded as ?Street View | Trusted.?

As I said to John at the Pro Community discussion:

"Google Business View is re-branded" Dang I wish they'd stop changing names every 6 months. Talk about customer confusion. PLUS doesn't changing the name to Street View diminish the business photos aspect of the whole thing???

We have LOTs of Business View photogs that are members here AND the Pro Community.

I'm sure all you Trusted Photogs know more about the inner workings and benefits of this change. Seems like some things will be streamlined and improved. Is it a good thing do you think?

What do you all think about the changes?

 

[Linda Buquet]

I pity all of you Business View photographers that are going to have to totally redo your sites and emails and customer agreements in light of the coming changes.

I remember what a nightmare it was for me when Places rebranded and the dashboard and so many other things changed. I had to redo everything!

 

[Louis Nava]

I pity all of you Business View photographers that are going to have to totally redo your sites and emails and customer agreements in light of the coming changes.

I remember what a nightmare it was for me when Places rebranded and the dashboard and so many other things changed. I had to redo everything!

Thanks for the compassion Linda. Yeah it's kinda weird that they would re-brand it again. After receiving the email early this morning I was puzzled but then learned more as the day went on. So I started to write a blog on my site that should be up tomorrow.

I really liked the "Business View" name. It gave the product it's own identity with a catchy and relevant name. In the past year of marketing and selling Business View I noticed that people resonated well with it.

There's one thing I've come to learn about Google... it's that they do things that wont make total sense at the time but further down the road we end up saying ... "aaah that's why!". Like the Business Photos name. They ended up using that for GMB instead. And it works better there.

It's going to get interesting heading to the holidays. I can't say a whole lot but I have confidence that it will end up working itself out and hopefully one day make more sense. Luckily I don't have too much to do when it comes to changing the name, we still have time before they call for the switch. Plus the goal for me is to have fun doing something I enjoy.

 

[CodyBaird]

It's interesting that the name now says "trusted". I suspect improved click through for those businesses that have it. Future local ranking factor?

 

[Linda Buquet]

Interesting point Cody!

Thanks so much for weighing in Louis, was hoping you would, but was not able to ping you about this. Thanks for your feedback on it!

 

[Louis Nava]

It's interesting that the name now says "trusted". I suspect improved click through for those businesses that have it. Future local ranking factor?

Yeah it's interesting that you bring that up. I just found out today from GMB that there's finally a metric in the insights dashboard called Photos that "is currently or will be" tracking data for photos and it includes the Virtual Tour. There is still something vague about it because it just says photos.. but there are many kinds of photos. This includes photos uploaded by a User, Owner, Trusted Photographer/Google, then Virtual Tour.

I want to also add that Business View has added trust to Business profiles for a while now. What that officially looks like in terms of data is not quite clear because there are so many other factors as we all know. I would conservatively say it could be a little more than the SSL factor and maybe increasing soon? We shall see.

 

[Lloyd Silver]

I'm looking forward to the change. Our biggest issue with Business View was the inconsistent application of unpublished policies that often resulted in Views going through numerous edits and us being told different things by different people at Google.

It seems like this will make it easier to publish Views (or whatever they choose to call them) which will help with adoption and lower cost (e.g. less time needing to be spent).

 

[Louis Nava]

I'm looking forward to the change. Our biggest issue with Business View was the inconsistent application of unpublished policies that often resulted in Views going through numerous edits and us being told different things by different people at Google.

It seems like this will make it easier to publish Views (or whatever they choose to call them) which will help with adoption and lower cost (e.g. less time needing to be spent).

Yeah I'm kinda wondering about the issues and policies and such. As a trusted Photographer I've always been really upfront of what the process, policies and capabilities are. Even in post production if there are any delays which there really hasn't been a whole lot of, I always make sure to relay that to the customer.

Hopefully lack of communication wasn't the case for you. But what ever has been expressed I'm sure it will get fixed with this new change.

I just published most of my initial thoughts on my blog with some pros and cons and how I think it will affect Business View.

 

[cjonesmn]

It's interesting that the name now says "trusted". I suspect improved click through for those businesses that have it. Future local ranking factor?

I received this notice (I'm a trusted photographer) and my impression was that the "Street View | Trusted" portion is only used if you're already a Google Business View Trusted Photographer and marketing yourself as such. I think that if you're just referring to the program, it's called "Street View", not "Street View - Trusted".

The original Google announcement was confusing, but I think this is what was intended.

Personally, I think the rebranding to "Street View" is confusing because not all businesses are on a street, many are inside a mall or other types of buildings. I think "Business View" is a much better term.

 

[cjonesmn]

I received this notice (I'm a trusted photographer) and my impression was that the "Street View | Trusted" portion is only used if you're already a Google Business View Trusted Photographer and marketing yourself as such. I think that if you're just referring to the program, it's called "Street View", not "Street View - Trusted".

Ooops, just came across a clarification on the "Street View - Trusted" moniker.

According to a June 2nd post by the Google Maps team, "In mid?August, the certified photographer program will be rebranded as "Street View | Trusted." It will remain focused on supporting pro photographers who publish photo spheres to Google Maps...". In essence, it's the title of the certification program, not the name of the business solution.

 

[Owen Kane]

I pity all of you Business View photographers that are going to have to totally redo your sites and emails and customer agreements in light of the coming changes.

This is the second time in one year... I would not mind except we just redid the marketing material, business cards and website... fuddle duddle crazy. New Badges, New ID Card, Change the vehicle wrap too. I hope this is the end of it.

 

[Zara Actation Now]

Thanks for the clarification.

 

[Linda Buquet]

This is the second time in one year... I would not mind except we just redid the marketing material, business cards and website... fuddle duddle crazy. New Badges, New ID Card, Change the vehicle wrap too. I hope this is the end of it.

Sorry Owen, I knew there would be issues with all that for some.

 

[Gerry.Foster]

I have to believe that "Trusted" wasn't at all accidental. It will be interesting to see how this plays out.

 

[Louis Nava]

More information was sent out to us... not sure how much I can discuss but there seems to be more questions this week than last.

I'll try to make it simple and relevant to this forum. Keep in mind that many of these changes wont be seen until Q4 2015.

Everything that uses the Street View technology will become Street View. This means, Google Views, Photo Spheres, Business View, etc.

Because of this, all these products will share the same functionality, upload system and requirements. This means anyone will be able to upload Street View style imagery (using the right equipment/app) anywhere on the map, except residential areas and China. So this is what they meant by less restrictions for the business owner.

Business Owners will be able to upload their own Street View imagery to their G+ pages. It's still unknown if the owner uploaded Views will be in the "See Inside" areas on the knowledge panel and Local pages or if they will get a dedicated area.

The upload process for business owners is still unknown. But we do know that Business owners will still get a chance to request a Trusted Photographer from Google's Official site.

The Street View app will not allow for full tours of a business when it's launched but it's on the road map.

Still hoping to see more on how "Trusted Photographer" content will differ from content that is contributed from a "user" and "business owner"

 

[Linda Buquet]

Thanks so much for keeping us posted Louis as things unfold!

 

[Zara Actation Now]

Thank you so very much for the update. I, too, am wondering what the r?le for trusted photographers will be in this new environment.