I’m not sure how long this has been around, but I noticed that Google Maps now has the ability to show alternative routes when using directions. This is great when you know that you want to avoid a particular area but do not know the next best route.

To use this feature, get directions using google maps and then hover over the alternative routes. The new route will be displayed on screen at the same time as the original one. See the screenshot below for more details.

I’m sure that many of you have seen the Experts Exchange website and sometimes had the frustrating situation where the site insists that you log into the website to see the result. Other times the results are shown to you if you scroll down to the bottom of the page. Thanks to Channel9 forums I’ve discovered that this only works if you came from google.

For example the dns query result shows this resulting page. By clicking on the first link in the google results and scrolling down you will find the answers. Clicking on the saved url will only give you the option to login.

Hopefully this little trick will help you get the answers you need.  Is this tactic sneaky? Yes. Is it justifiable to get the answers without joining? In my opinion yes – as they are gaming Google to get to the top of the search engine, then it’s fair game to use this tweak to access the results.  If Google had the option to personalise the results so that I could ignore Experts Exchange (or other sites without specifying the ignore option for every search) this would be great ,but as this feature doesn’t exist this tweak should help.

Did you know that you can update your company information that Google displays?

For example where I work the information that Google displays was for an employee specifically and his direct line. Not the proper company address and phone number, least I say that this is not ideal. I imagine that Google culls that information from several sources and pieces it all together and each employee’s number is posted on the website under their bio. So I am sure that this is were Google is getting it.

There is a way to fix this! Do a search for your business and you should see the information at the top with perhaps a Google map thumbnail along with other search results below. Under your address you will see “More Information”.

If you click on the “More Information” link, and at the bottom (Very Bottom) of that next page, there is an “Edit This Listing” link. Click it and Google walks you through asking for Address information Phone, etc…Business Type and picture with a wizard type setup. They then provide you with a 4 digit pin number, and wanted to initiate a call to the main number you listed to confirm the details you submitted. Hint * I had to give reception the pin so they could confirm it.

Google said that it could take up to 4 weeks to update it.

So there you go, it wasn’t as difficult as I imagined to update incorrect business information in Google’s database.

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