@searchrook spotted a change to the Google Location Page Guidelines which shows that Google is now "piloting" or testing new schema to communicate changes to your local businesses information, so that it can update the Google local knowledge panel.
The docs say:
We are currently piloting this feature with a restricted set of initial data providers. We hope to soon open up the feature so any provider who implements spec-compliant markup is eligible to participate.
You can now use markup on your official website to provide Google with information about local business locations. These attributes appear on the card and elsewhere throughout Google Search and Maps. For instance, a restaurant's menu URL appears prominently on the card, letting users click through to see what kind of food and drink is available.
There are tons of markup available to use, such as the required name and address information as well as the recommended geo-location, opening hours, and then items like menus, actions and so fourth.
Again, this is an additional way to get data into the Google local knowledge panel that Google is testing.
Google did just last week introduce the Google My Business API for businesses to maintain their local data in bulk via an API.
You can check out the schema documentation.
Forum discussion at Twitter.
