What if, as you browsed the web, you were able to quickly identify content that was directly relevant to you, your business, or your passion? That’s one of the ideas behind top-level domains (TLDs). Earlier this year at I/O, we talked about Google’s portfolio of TLDs that will be coming online over the next few years and how we’re investing in this space to develop cool things for the future of the web. A TLD helps you understand what a webpage is all about, like how you can tell that .edu domains are likely to be educational institutions. Today, we’re excited to announce our first new top-level domain in the United States: .SOY.


Built with the US Hispanic audience in mind (53 million strong and growing), .SOY means “I am” in Spanish and opens up a new place on the web for everyone to celebrate Hispanic culture - regardless of country of origin or language preference.

.SOY is a space for this influential community to create, discover and connect with culturally relevant content and ideas online. It’s a place where you can build a website for your growing small business or new business venture, or share your passion with the world. When you visit a site that ends in .SOY, you’ll know it was created with a Latino audience in mind.

To help jump start this new comunidad, we’ve partnered with several Hispanic organizations and small businesses, including the Hispanic Heritage Foundation. In addition, we’ve built HolaGoogle.soy, a place where Latinos can explore our products and be inspired by people doing really cool stuff.

Hispanic Heritage Foundation ELLA Institute LATISM Webs

Starfish*Global Republica Pix-l Graphx Queen of Tacos

The .SOY story is just getting started, and we’re excited to see where la comunidad takes it from here. To learn more about .SOY and claim your domain, visit www.iam.soy.

Posted by Jordyn Buchanan, gTLD Team

“Hey, how do I get my business on the web?”

In my nine years at Google, I've heard this question all of the time.

To answer, today we’re releasing a short video series (30 minutes total), sharing the same advice we’d give to our friends and family. It’s the advice I’d give to my sister, Marnie, who owns a jewelry store, or my cousin, Scott, who works as a realtor.

Video spoiler alert: You won’t need to make a website, but you definitely need a way for your local business to reach potential customers using their mobile phones, tablets, or desktop computers.


The great thing about video is that you can pause at any time and work at your own pace. Next time you hear the question: “How do I get my business on Google?”, please share the link and help get more local businesses online!

Series: Build an online presence for your local business

Video #1: Introduction and hot topics (3:22)

Meet my sister, Marnie, who owns a jewelry store and my cousin, Scott, who works as a realtor. Follow them as we talk about the big changes in the last decade, such as making sure your business can reach customers at work, home, or on-the-go using their mobile phones.

Video #2: Determine your business’ value-add and online goal (4:08)

With the example of Scott, the realtor, you’ll learn about the marketing funnel, setting an online goal, and highlighting what makes your business special.

Video #3. Find potential customers (7:41)

Marnie and Scott figure out their customers’ most common journeys to reach their business. We'll use their examples to brainstorm how you can reach customers on review sites, through search engines, maps apps, and social and professional networking sites.

Video #4: Basic implementation and best practices (5:23)

The fundamentals and best practices to take your business from offline to online!

Video #5: Differentiate your business from the competition (5:09)

With Scott’s business as a realtor, see how to demonstrate that your local business is the best choice for customers by adding photos, videos, and getting reviews.

Video #6: Engage customers with a holistic online identity (4:51)

We'll end the series by showing how Scott makes sure his online presence sends a cohesive message to customers and answers all their common questions. :)

Written by Maile Ohye, Developer Programs Tech Lead

One of the toughest things about running a successful business is standing out from your competitors. With Google Maps Business View, you can show the unique character of your business and service to more than one billion Google users around the world. Business View uses Street View technology to let your potential customers explore your location through a 360-degree virtual tour. Hundreds of thousands of businesses have already gone live with their tours on Google to help give people the information they need when booking a trip, making a dinner reservation, and more.

If you're in the travel and tourism industry, Business View can help give potential visitors a glimpse of where they're going as they plan their trips. A great example is GeoVegas, a new website from Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Authority. GeoVegas incorporates Business View to enable people to virtually experience hotels, restaurants and other noteworthy locations in Las Vegas before making their reservations. The site even lets them tailor their experience so they can plan their dream vacation. vacation.


On a larger scale, as part of Andorra’s goal to grow tourism, the Actua Initiative helped get more than 95 percent of the country’s businesses online with Google. Visitors from across the globe can use Business View to preview restaurants like La Borda and salons like Anna Barroca Perruquers. This has resulted in an increase in online traffic and extended time spent on the business’ websites.


Business View can also be a powerful way to communicate your brand story to customers. For example, if you’re in the product manufacturing industry, you can show your customers not just what you make but how you make it. The Chrysler 200 Factory Tour gives consumers an interactive look inside the auto making process and allows them to tour aspects of the assembly process, bringing them inside the local Michigan plant.


Getting the virtual tour of your business live on Google is easy:

• How it works: A Google Trusted Photographer collects a series of high resolution panoramic photos of your business interior to create a 360-degree interactive experience. Google Maps Business View appears in Google Search results, Google Maps and Google+, whether your customers are using computers, smartphones or tablets. For hotels, Business View will also show up on Google Hotel Finder.
• Why you should try it: People like to see photos of a location when deciding where to go, and Business View allows owners to put their best foot forward with a high quality interactive tour. Our testing has shown that "See Inside" drives more clicks to a business' site. This imagery also allows you to build unique experiences online for your potential customers to enjoy.
• How to get started: Find a Google Trusted Photographer or Trusted Agency on the Google Maps Business View website and set up a photo shoot.

We look forward to seeing your business’ virtual tour going live on Google. And to learn more about other ways to connect directly with your customers on Google, check out Google My Business.

Posted by Soufi Esmaeilzadeh, Google Maps Business View Product Manager

The Robot Garage was a past recipient of a Mission Main Street Grant from Chase.

Small businesses are driven by turning big ideas into reality. A few weeks ago, we posted news that we’re once again teaming up with Chase for this year’s Mission Main Street Grants program, an effort helping small businesses across America bring some of those big ideas to life.

This year, twenty businesses will each get a $150,000 grant from Chase, as well as a Chromebook, $2000 towards one market research study with Google Consumer Surveys, and a trip to Google for a small business marketing workshop with Google experts.

We know how important the web can be to help small businesses grow, so we also worked with Chase again to build a marketing toolkit on www.MissionMainstreetGrants.com. The toolkit shares tips that every business can use, like best practices for digital marketing and social media, as well as how to make the most of online advertising and analytics.

ABL Denim, a small business based out of Los Angeles and a 2013 grant recipient, understands the benefits of the grant full well. The company produces a premium denim jean line designed with features that make dressing easier for people with limited mobility or sensory integration disorders. The grant has allowed owner Stephanie Alves and her team the opportunity to hire staff, rebuild their website, create a product catalogue, and learn more about investing in marketing and advertising - which lent tremendous credibility in their talks with bigger retailers about business partnerships.(Google to confirm that this has been verified by ABL)

The program is open to current businesses that have been operating for at least two years and have less than 100 full-time employees. Businesses must receive at least 250 votes on www.MissionMainStreetGrants.com via Facebook authenticator to be eligible for the opportunity to receive a grant. The deadline to apply is October 3, 2014, so hurry and sign up soon! You can find out more information about the program and all of the eligibility requirements at www.MissionMainstreetGrants.com. On the website you can also check out videos and a Google Hangout with last year’s grant recipients as they share how they used social channels to rally support and improve their applications.

The web opens up countless opportunities for small businesses to grow and reach new customers, and we’re excited to see your great submissions. Get moving before time runs out, and good luck!

Posted by Jon Kaplan, Vice President of US Sales & Operations

When’s the last time you checked out what your customers are saying about your business on the web?

With Google My Business, you can see and respond to reviews from Google users. You’ll also be able to see feedback that customers have left on other websites.


The first step to seeing and responding to reviews is to verify your business.

Once your business is verified, visit the Google My Business dashboard, scroll down, and click Manage Reviews.

For the best experience with reviews:

• Encourage your customers to leave feedback on Google. Reviews on Google can help your business stand out from sites with fewer reviews. 
• Respond to reviews. Your customers will notice that your business values their input and respond with more reviews. 
• Keep it clean. We’ll remove reviews and responses on Google that contain advertising, spam, and other stuff that violates our policies. 

With Reviews, you’ll hear firsthand feedback from the people who matter most to your business: your customers!

Cross-posted with the Official Google Blog.

Over the past few months, we’ve had the chance to talk to businesses all over the country and hear stories of how they’ve become successful. For many, it’s pretty simple: the Internet. The web is helping businesses and communities across the U.S. to grow and succeed. In fact, last year Google’s search and advertising tools helped provide $111 billion of economic activity for more than 1.5 million businesses—advertisers, publishers and nonprofits—across the U.S.



Take Go2marine, a boat supply company located on Bainbridge Island, off the coast of Washington State. Because of their remote location, bringing traffic to their website using Google AdWords plays an important role in their ability to sell their 250,000+ boat supplies to customers in 176 countries. When it’s winter in the U.S., they rely on customers located in other parts of the world where it’s boating season, with the web bringing them business from any place, in any season.

Or meet Don Morton, who taught reading, writing and language in lower-income neighborhoods in my home town of Chicago for nine years. In 2005, he began creating his own materials to supplement what the school system provided. Realizing that his worksheets could be useful for students and teachers everywhere, he created ereadingworksheets.com to provide his worksheets for free. Don started using Google AdSense to offset his costs by placing ads next to his content, and today he’s able to work full-time on his website and make an impact on students around the world.

These are just two examples of enterprising people making the most of Google tools to find new customers, connect with existing ones and grow their businesses; you can find plenty more of them in our Economic Impact Report. Our tools help connect business owners to their customers, whether they’re around the corner or across the world from each other. And when businesses flourish, it’s good news for the rest of us. Recent data shows that businesses that are online are expected to grow 40 percent faster and hire twice as many workers as businesses that aren’t. Every year, it gets clearer that the web helps lead to more successful businesses, stronger economies, more vibrant towns, and more prosperous communities.

Learn more about our economic impact in all 50 U.S. states, and how businesses are finding success through the web. Whether it’s a part for a boat or a grammar worksheet, we’re proud to play a role in giving businesses the tools they need to do more--to grow and thrive and connect with customers and communities all over the world. Posted by Jim Lecinski, Vice President, Customer Solutions