Google Launches Place Pages

As Yelp becomes one of the fastest growing review sites, Google is stepping up its emphasis on local by launching Place Pages. Place Pages will exist for businesses, points of interest, transit stations, neighborhoods, landmarks as well as cities.

According to Google, “You can get to a Place Page by clicking on ‘more info’ in search results, or by clicking “more info” in the mini-bubble. Now, instead of just getting a slightly bigger bubble, you’ll get an entire page of rich details, like photos, videos, a Street View preview, nearby transit, reviews and related websites”. What does this mean for sights like Yelp? Place Pages utilizes reviews from sites such as CitySearch and Zagat, but does not include Yelp. Mashable comments, “What makes it a threat… is the fact that Place Pages have their own separate, potentially indexable web pages. Unlike before, this information could appear as their own search results”. Will Place Pages create enough competition to take away users from Yelp?