Google My Business Replaces Google Places

After years of confusion and frustration Google has finally answered the call for the much needed consolidation of its local assets into one simplified interface, which they've named, Google My Business. This new platform has been designed to allow you to manage your entire presence on Google including your Google+ business profile, Insights, Reviews, Analytics and Hangouts.

This was a cross platform roll out, which means it's available on desktop, tablet or mobile. You will also be automatically updated from Google Places for Business to Google My Business although chances are you've already been switched.

As you can see from this screenshot, Google has created a step-by-step guided process designed to make it obvious how to fill out any business' profile 100%.

Google's list of features include:

• Update your business info on Search, Maps and Google+ from one place to make it easy for customers to get in touch.
• Add beautiful photos of your business and a virtual tour of your business interior to help customers see what makes your business unique.
• Connect directly with your fans and customers by sharing news, events and other important updates from your Google+ page.
• Stay on top of reviews from across the Web, and respond to Google reviews.
• Understand how people find and interact with your business using custom insights and integration with AdWords Express.
• Manage your information on-the-go with the Google My Business Andriod app and the iOS app (launching soon).

We all jumped into this new system with enthusiasm and so far we've found a few glitches and features left out, but we all agree it's an improvement. The biggest downfall that we've found is:

• Removal of the top search queries that lead the customers to your business listing from within Google Maps. This is data that businesses count on and the la...