Google has been making a number of tweaks to its Places API as of late. In early May, the company introduced autocomplete, which brings the same functionality that automatically completes the search query for a user to the API. Around the same time, it added new and improved search functionality, an addition that ultimately benefits developers, businesses, and end-users. Recently added to the menu is full-on support for events, another addition that event marketers can use to their advantage.
In the eyes of Google, an event is considered to be any kind of gathering – public or private, promotion, or performance that takes place at a specific location within the Places ecosystem. Its purpose is to provide information about a certain occasion so users can easily locate and check in to the location upon visiting. Events has always been a great feature for marketers operating from their own venue, but unfortunately, its lack of intuitiveness often led to an experience that was cluttered, and less beneficial to all parties involved.
Prior to the recent update, any events added in Google Places had to be added to their own individual entry – even those occurring at the same location. As a result, event were constantly being added as new places. For this reason, it was common to see one location show up as a restaurant in the first listing, then as a bar, lounge, or another type of venue in subsequent searches. The search functionality Places offers is there to help users, but this repetitive cycle often led to the quality of the results being lowered as the listings filled up outdated events.
By adding full support for events to the Google Places API, Google has addressed a common problem that plagues users, and the event marketers vying for their attention. The additional support offers an option that enables events to be explicitly added to the search process. This particular update gives users the ability to attach events to a given place, over a certain period of time. Once it has come and gone, the gathering will be searchable by a unique ID, yet will be removed from the listings. The result is a more targeted search experience that dramatically improves visibility for venue owners.
Location Matters
Location-based tools like Google Places are providing a new way for people to share. With the right device and application, users can easily let friends know where they are hanging and what they are doing by attaching a location to their status update or picture. Whether it is a diner or a concert venue, the business hosting the event in question stands to benefit hugely from the visibility that activity provides.
The addition of events support is worthy news for event marketers with apps connected to the Google Places API. If you’re one of them, we recommend checking out the official documentation to learn more about how you can get the most from this feature.
Author Bio:
Aidan Hijleh is a freelance copywriter and serves as the Non-Profit Partnership Liaison for Benchmark Email. Aidan advocates free email marketing services to assist with the flourishing of grassroots organizations.
Featured image on home page, courtesy of MintSocial.
