Hey—we've moved. Visit
The Keyword
for all the latest news and stories from Google
Official Blog
Insights from Googlers into our products, technology, and the Google culture
Explore a whole new way to window shop, with Google and your mobile phone
December 7, 2009
What if you could decide where to shop, eat or hang out, with a little help from local Google users?
It might take you a while to ask them all, so to make it easier we've launched a new effort to send window decals to over 100,000 local businesses in the U.S. that have been the most sought out and researched on Google.com and Google Maps. We're calling these businesses the "
Favorite Places on Google
" and you'll now start to find them in over 9,000 towns and cities, in all 50 states. You can also explore a sample of the Favorite Places in 20 of the largest U.S. cities at
google.com/favoriteplaces
. Each window decal has a unique bar code,
known as a QR code
that you can scan with any of
hundreds of mobile devices
— including iPhone, Android-powered phones, BlackBerry and more — to take you directly to that business's
Place Page
on your mobile phone. With your mobile phone and these new decals, you can easily go up to a storefront and immediately find reviews,
get a coupon
if the business is offering one or
star a business
as a place you want to remember for the future. Soon, you'll be able to leave a review on the mobile page as well, just like on your desktop.
To scan the codes, you'll need a phone with a camera and
an app that can read QR codes
. For Android-powered devices, including the Droid by Motorola, we recommend using the free Barcode Scanner app. For iPhone, we have found the
$1.99 QuickMark app
to work best, and starting today, we're partnering with QuickMark
to offer the app for free
for the first 40,000 downloads. For other devices, we recommend searching for "QR reader" in your app marketplace, if it has one, or
searching
for the model of your phone and [qr reader] on Google.
BeeTagg
and
NeoReader
are two other apps that we've found to work well with the decals.
Here's a video that shows you how this all works:
This launch is part of our overall effort — online and offline — to provide you with the best local business results whenever you're trying to figure out where to go, whether it's a
trendy Cuban restaurant in Philly
,
a comics shop in L.A.
,
a hip hotel in NYC
or a little bit of
photographic history in Rochester, N.Y
.
We plan to periodically send out new waves of window decals to qualifying businesses. If you own or manage a business and were selected as a Favorite Place, you may have already received your decal or, for most of you, it will arrive by mail in the next one to two weeks. If you weren't selected in this round, your first step is to claim your listing with
Google's Local Business Center
for free. That will help us determine that your business information is correct. Then, you can enhance your local business listing by adding enhanced content like photos and videos.
To explore a gallery of several hundred Favorite Places in 20 U.S. cities, to learn more about how to use the QR codes and to find out how your business can get involved, check out
google.com/favoriteplaces
.
Update
on 12/18
: If your phone does not support the mobile version of Place Pages, you will be taken to the mobile version of the Google homepage upon scanning the QR code. The QR code itself is correct and should take you to the mobile Place Page on supported devices.
Posted by Ryan Hayward & David Kim, Product Marketing Managers
Labels
accessibility
41
acquisition
26
ads
131
Africa
19
Android
58
apps
419
April 1
4
Asia
39
books + book search
48
commerce
12
computing history
7
crisis response
33
culture
12
developers
120
diversity
35
doodles
68
education and research
144
entrepreneurs at Google
14
Europe
46
faster web
16
free expression
61
google.org
73
googleplus
50
googlers and culture
202
green
102
Latin America
18
maps and earth
194
mobile
124
online safety
19
open source
19
photos
39
policy and issues
139
politics
71
privacy
66
recruiting and hiring
32
scholarships
31
search
505
search quality
24
search trends
118
security
36
small business
31
user experience and usability
41
youtube and video
140
Archive
2016
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2015
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2014
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2013
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2012
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2011
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2010
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2009
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2008
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2007
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2006
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2005
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Mar
Feb
Jan
2004
Dec
Nov
Oct
Sep
Aug
Jul
Jun
May
Apr
Feed
Google
on
Follow @google
Follow
Give us feedback in our
Product Forums
.
Follow
