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A Google Places Help thread from the past has gotten some recent attention.
Business owners who are open 24-7 feel they have no clear and easy way of communicating that to their customers on Google Maps via Google Places.
Google offers businesses to label their "hours of operations" but there is no check box for 24 hours.
Google Maps representative, Cecelia said you should try setting the hours of operation to "1:00:00:24:00,2:00:00:24:00". But many businesses are not happy with that option.
Do you think Google Maps should add a 24 hours option?
Forum discussion at Google Places Help.
Comments:
helpstring
06/15/2011 12:11 pm
Yes they should. It's just one checkbox.
Emilyc
06/15/2011 02:08 pm
Agreed... One check box would be easier for the consumer to understand what they are seeing also. I am not going to drive to a 24-hour place unless I am certain it is 24-hours. Believe me when you are on a long road trip and you don't know the area you are in, and you need to pull over at 1 a.m. to eat you want to know right off where you are heading and that the restaurant is open. 24 hours 1:00.00:24:00 Come on, what one do you understand with just a simple glance... especially since Google always emphasizes "speed" of things. You don't have to spend time to figure out the first one.
Daniel Hollerung
06/15/2011 02:10 pm
This has been a major bone of contention for many of my clients for some time. I know several attorneys that will take a call for a DUI case at 3:00 AM or any time for that matter.
Fedor
06/16/2011 02:15 pm
Google places is annoying, how about doing some real SEO and targeting the 24 hour keywords if you're concerned that it's so vital to your business. Or, just don't specify time and put 24 HOURS in the damn description... Learn to be resourceful and work with what you have instead of whining.
emilysc
06/16/2011 02:36 pm
You must not have read the article. The last sentence asked "Do you think Google Maps should add a 24 hour option?" We are responding to that. And if you knew anything about SEO this is real SEO targeting. Google maps is a huge place people go to get information whether you are one of those people or not. And to get your business listed appropriately with Google Maps you just received more strength for your business than millions of back-links on crap websites. So what you call whining seems to only be coming from your post, everyone else here is giving their input and opinion just like the last sentence in the article asked for. Google is all about speed and ease of use for the customer, therefore if it is easier for the customer to see a 24-hour option than having to read a description to find that out, it is something Google should implement. Especially since it would not be complicated for them to add that feature to their code.
GrandFred
06/17/2011 12:13 pm
Google place is one of the most important thing for SEO company to look into. You can certainly see more local business getting more attention .
Fedor
06/17/2011 05:23 pm
If you knew anything about SEO you'd know that you don't get your visits from Google maps. The only people that rely on google places are those that have no idea what else to do. You Sir, appear to have little idea as to what exactly you're saying here, you would have to be a complete fool not to take millions of backlinks even from shitty sites over a google places listing. After all, google is not the only search engine nor will it ever be the only search engine. It doesn't matter what's on your map if people still can't find you in organic serps. Having the 24 hour feature is pretty much useless to 99.98% of people using google places. Why would google spend any amount of time on a feature that's so trivial? Just because you think it's important doesn't mean it is.
emilysc
06/17/2011 05:28 pm
Really? Because I know there aren't a lot of comments on this thread, but yet you seem to be the only person who feels like this is a trivial feature. Google hosted a live conference just two days ago and hit on the point of user interface several times, and that their goal is to bring the consumers what they want to see. If consumers want a 24-hour feature, it isn't trivial at all. I am not going to argue with you, I am simply going to let the numbers speak for themselves. I would challenge you to tell me what website you do SEO for, and what keywords you use. I would love to search for your keywords in my location and tell you where you site shows up on Google's search results.
Fedor
06/17/2011 05:44 pm
Well there you go, some people think it's important and I think it isn't. Just expressing my opinion on the matter. I did the math and don't think it's that important; simply based on the fact that there are far fewer businesses that are open 24 hours. People are more likely to search for "24 hour internet cafe detroit" than click on 40 internet cafes on a map trying to find one open 24 hours. If google maps had a feature to specify the hours of operation as part of the search parameters then I could see the 24 hours option being useful. I'd vote to have operating hours search over 24 hours box. One is clearly more important that the other.
Wiki Yellow Pages
06/18/2011 09:50 am
This facility is essential in my opinion. That's why we set up our Alpha site for our customers and users (http://wikypages.org). What do you think of the interface?
Fedor
06/20/2011 01:53 pm
That's a lot of dropdowns, have you tried applying a jquery timepicker?
Dewinari
09/13/2011 02:47 pm
Thanks for your comment and sorry for the delay. Jquery TimePicker can be a solution, I didn't find one with a nice design. Can you share some links ? Thx