There’s little that riles me up more than when I feel I’ve made a bad purchase, bought into advertising that doesn’t live up to the hype, or was taken advantage of in a business transaction whether it’s with a store, while online, or with a service. My family and I have really tried to become more “discerning consumers.” One tool we’ve started using quite a bit is Google Places. I think most of us use Google to find local businesses…honestly, we don’t even have a phone book in the house anymore (what was the name of that big yellow book again?). When I do a search in Google for a business near me I simply type in the term (let’s say, Chicago-style pizza) and then the location (San Antonio…or you can use your zip code instead of your town/city). Here’s what I got:
So, let’s click on “A” and see what we get. Wow! 4.5 out of 5 stars and 45 reviews! Now I can get a feel for what my neighbors (at least my fellow Chicago-style pizza-craving neighbors) think! There’s also all sorts of other info you can get from the site including business hours/days, links to the business’s web site, and often you’ll find coupons, too!
So there you have it! Of course it’s free, it’s right inside the regular Google search page…so why not give Google Places a try? Let me know how it works for you. OK, now I’m gonna go get some pizza!!!!! Yummmmmm!
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