Google has just released a feature for users of iPhones, Palm WebOS phones, or Android-powered devices. (Google’s blog post.) As of right NOW, if you do a Google search on your phone for a product, you will see a blue dot if that item is available at a store near you! On that screen you will also see if the item has full or limited availability, the price, which stores near you have the item, the distance those stores are from you at that exact moment, the phone number of the store, and a link to get directions with Google Maps.

This is a sort-of mashup of the “Around Me” app and Google search, with the added feature of the blue dot item-specific information.

Currently, this feature will only show up for items available at Sears, Best Buy, Williams-Sonoma, Pottery Barn, and West Elm. But it’s only DAY ONE! Surely you can see where this is going.

Now for you as business owner, this is even more amazing. You can add your own products, using the Google Merchant Center, so that YOUR products in YOUR store show up in these searches, both in desktop searches and mobile ones.

Add to that the fact that people can already rate, review and comment about your business & your products using Yelp or 4square. Further proving the point that the direction the internet is taking is Local, Social and Mobile.

These are exciting times.

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Yesterday was a BIG day for Google. And for social networking. I went over it in my live show at BusinessInnerCircle.com, as well. But I wanted to make sure and post it here so everyone knows.

Google released their newest product called “Buzz” yesterday. Essentially, it’s a social network which links your twitter feed, your youtube videos, your flickr pics, and all other social networks that Google can figure out that are connected with you…all to your gmail.

So now in your gmail, you’ll see a real-time feed of your friends’ posts on their connected social networks and your own. You can post directly from your gmail homepage, add links and pics and it goes into the feeds of all your Buzz friends instantly. The more connected sites and friends you add, the more feed data you will have, and the more people will see what YOU’RE talking about as well.

According to the very first link I saw from an internet geekstar in my feed when I signed up today, “Facebook has just lost half of its value.” I don’t know how true that is, but Google Buzz certainly has potential to be THE go-to place for all of my social media activities. Because if I can do it all from one place, why not?

Only question I have at the moment is how Google plans to allow me to link to my other sites which it didn’t automatically find for me. There are many that it didn’t even see. So I’m trying to figure that out at the moment, and I’ll keep you posted with the results.

Meanwhile, here’s the link to Google Buzz so you can check it out for yourself.

And if you want to stay up-to-date on other breaking news in the internet marketing industry, stop by my live show @ BusinessInnerCircle.com every Tuesday night @ 6:30 pm PST!

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Visa, Mastercard and the Federal Trade Commission are working out a new series of regulations to protect consumers and businesses from fraudulent online business transactions. To date, there are already hundreds of internet businesses which have lost their merchant accounts in the past couple weeks.

There are always pros and cons in making regulations for a few which affect the many, and this situation is no different.

On the plus side, internet consumers will be protected from unethical internet business practices such as “Negative option billing“. Additionally, Visa and Mastercard will be knocking out all activities which are damaging to their reputation. We, as consumers AND business owners, count on Visa and Mastercard all the time. And we need to be able to count on them.

On the minus side, their regulations COULD affect businesses which do NOT engage in unethical activities, but which contain some of the criteria/characteristics which are similar to those of the scammers. For example, many membership sites offer free introductory services before you start getting billed monthly. It’s so common, it’s basically how it’s always done. But the shady businesses do this too. So if the new rules cancel this activity, millions of completely ethical businesses will not be able to do business.

It’s impossible to say exactly how this is going to play out, but one thing is for SURE: If you use negative option billing, you better make it REALLY obvious to the customer that that’s what you’re doing, so there is NO MISTAKE, and NO chance that your customer doesn’t know. And if you’re an unethical business intentionally withholding your activities from your customers…well, you’ll be gone soon. But it’s never too late to make a new start and try running a legitimate business and actually being good to your customers.

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So how do you find out if your content is unique? How do you know if your writers are writing original articles or just copying and pasting someone else’s? You now have a tool to find this out for you. It’s called Plagium. Plagium.com is a very simple tool. You enter a paragraph into the field, and it finds out if it’s unique or not, shows you how many times it’s been used, and where it’s located.

When you’re the one writing, it’s easy. You know when you’re creating original content when you write something yourself. But as you expand as a business and get others to help do work for you, it’s tougher to keep track of this. So now you have a tool that makes this easier, and ensures that your website content is original.

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VigLink is an affiliate link automator tool, basically. To see what they potentially can help you earn, they do a scan of the pages of your website for terms which relate to already-existing affiliate products. They will then give you an estimate of how much money you’re potentially missing out on.

Once you’re set up with VigLink, they will routinely scan your pages, and automatically add the affiliate links FOR you, everywhere where there are affiliate links which pertain to your content. They are connected with all the big affiliate companies like Commission Junction and Linkshare. This can potentially save you a TON of time and also potentially earn you a lot of money.

So go check it out and let me know what you think.

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This week Google decided they will no longer censor their searches in China.  This decision was made as a result of the extremely invasive hacks they were subjected to this past December. At first, they thought it was one of the more common and annoying hackers just causing trouble. But after thorough investigation it was found that the Chinese government themselves was the culprit. They were secretly and illegally reading gmails of human rights activists in China to get information.

So they put a Google branch in their country, under the guise of increasing freedoms. Then they they use these Google services to perform illegal surveillances of those people demanding human rights.

Google has announced publicly that it is taking a stand for human rights, and is willing to close their office in China in order to do what’s right. They will undoubtedly lose money from that action. But what they gain in respect points from the rest of us should more than make up for it.

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I’ll tell you all about it when my show goes live tonight (Tuesday April 28th at 6:30 PM Pacific Standard Time / 9:30 Eastern)  Stop by and say hi. Tonight I’ll tell you about some great marketing tips I just learned & how just one idea I’ve quickly implemented is making me profit ALREADY! As usual, I’ll also answer your live questions about how to market any business online.  When it’s time to tune in you’ll watch at any of these locations:

http://www.billmcintosh.tv/live
or
http://www.ustream.tv/channel/bill-mcintosh-on-internet-marketing
or
http://www.businessinnercircle.com/forum/forum/addonchat.php

It’s broadcasting live at all 3 locations.

I’ll also take live call-in questions tonight.  When I open up the lines, you can call 1-714-795-2504 to reach me live on the air. Tonight I’ll only do ONE site critique for you live on the air so you’ll want to call in as soon as I open up the phones.

Last weeks  show was a HUGE success.  We had a record turnout & we even hit the front page of Ustream as a “Most Viewed” show again.  Tonight I want to go even higher! Please help me do that by inviting others…

A quick favor to ask:
If you are a fan of my live show and are on social networking sites like Twitter, Myspace or Facebook, please send an announcement out telling people about the show.  I’d love to see a TON of viewers on tonight’s show. Thanks!

Tell them to go here:

http://www.billmcintosh.tv/live

I look forward to seeing you there!

All the best,

Bill McIntosh
http://www.billmcintosh.tv/live
Follow me on Twitter:
http://twitter.com/billmcintosh

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I’ve put together something really amazing that is in “pre-launch” and I’m only letting a limited number of my subscribers & the viewers of my online show take part.

I’m also looking for joint venture partners, affiliates & resellers who are interested in making really good money promoting this new service. You can earn large residual monthly payments if you take part in promoting it. I’ll talk about this Tuesday night also.

It’s probably unlike anything you’ve seen before & you’ll want to find out about it. So be sure you tune into tomorrow night’s show. It will be at the regular time (6:30 PM Pacific / 9:30 PM Eastern). If you don’t have it handy, Here’s where you can watch it:

http://www.billmcintosh.tv/live

I’ll send the regular reminders out to the mailing list & just like usual, I’ll also still be taking your live online marketing & business questions after I make my announcement.

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Tonight I’m inviting the viewers of my live weekly Marketing show to take part in a very limited private launch. Now’s your chance to join & here’s what you’re invited to:

I have assembled an awesome team of amazing marketers on my staff. Together we run multiple seven figure businesses online. In all, I have 9 executive level marketers working with me full-time on my various businesses. These are not some anonymous group of offshore outsourcers… these are full-time professionals who I work with every day. These are people who I’ve personally trained, I highly respect and who work with me on MY OWN marketing projects.

How would you like me and my team and I to help you with your marketing?

How would you like this help for FREE?

Not only that, how would you like to network with and get help from my friends & other business professionals in a community created just for us?

Would you like that if it were FREE?

Join me LIVE TONIGHT at 6:30 PM on my online marketing show and find out all about this amazing opportunity.  Just click this link when it’s time:

http://www.billmcintosh.tv/live

I look forward to seeing you tonight!

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Did you know that 25% of all the people who voted for Barack Obama had already signed up to one of his sites or had become his friend in an online social networking group? Obama extensively used all the same techniques I teach on my weekly live show and I believe it won him the election.

I’m going to give you an inside look at exactly how Obama used Internet marketing to dominate politics & win the presidency.  Tune in TONIGHT (January 20th) to my weekly live online marketing show:

It’s live at 6:30 PM Pacific Standard Time tonight. Come by and say hi! Just go to:

http://www.billmcintosh.tv/live

I’ll be there answering live questions about online marketing. You should come by and ask me any questions that you have.  I’ll open up my call in lines during the show & take your questions. When I do, you can call 1-714-795-2504 to reach me live on the air.  Later, this number will also forward through to my team during normal business hours.

A quick favor to ask:
If you are a fan of my live show and are on social networking sites like Twitter, Myspace or Facebook, please send an announcement out telling people about the show.  I’d love to see a TON of viewers on tonight’s show. Thanks!

I’ll also be giving an update on my new social marketing tool: TweetManager. It’s currently in closed private beta testing now. I’ll be giving an update on the status of the tool & handing out invites to start using it if you aren’t already in. Just click this link when it’s time:

http://www.billmcintosh.tv/live

I look forward to seeing you there!

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