Places Scout Update Version 2.8.1 has just been released!

Included in this update is a fix for gathering Maps Results, as well as support for gathering the new local 3-Pack results and other bug fixes / improvements.

Places Scout Version 2.8.1 Release Notes

• FIXED – Gathering Maps Results

• NEW – Added support for parsing results from the new Google 3-Pack that appears for certain searches (restaurants, hotels, etc).

• NOTE: These new result types are now labeled as ‘Local 3-Pack’

• NOTE: To track Local 3-Pack Rankings, you MUST include the exact business name in the ‘Exact Business Name’ box when creating / editing a ranking report, as local 3-Pack results do not contain a website URL in the HTML of the result so we have to fall back on tracking by business name for these results.

• FIXED – Calculating Distance from Center

• FIXED – Properly parsing address data in some cases where only certain parts of the address are available

• FIXED – In the Find Local Clients module, in certain cases data from a different business would be displayed for some results due to a bug where Google has an incorrect +Local page link for that result (one that points to a business that is not the current result). Logic has been added to detect this case which fixes this issue.

• FIXED – Parsing Review Date for Google+ Reviews

• FIXED – Proper parsing of review text when a review has an owner response for Google+

• FIXED – Gathering Estimated Employees and Years in Business in the Find Local Clients Module

• IMPROVED – Improved the Speed of Loading Gridview XML Data when disabling map markers

Enjoy!

Best Regards,
Mark Kabana
Places Scout Development Team

• FIXED / SUPPORT ADDED – Places Scout now works properly with the latest Firefox Version 32.x

• SUPPORT ADDED – You can now choose to gather data from the new Google Maps.
  • NOTE: The setting to gather results from the new Maps under the 'General' settings section, and is true by default.

• NEW – You can now select multiple Grid View XML files when loading previously stored data in the Find Local Clients module!
  • This new feature allows you to aggregate results from multiple scrapes into one data file for processing.

• IMPROVED - Added support for detecting Owner Verified for each +Local page by checking for verified icon on the page

• FIXED – Parsing Facebook Likes and Checkins in the Find Local Clients Module
  • NOTE: The ‘FB People Talking About’ column has been removed because this data is no longer available from Facebook

• FIXED – Parsing Maps Result Website Link for keywords that generate a single Maps Result

• FIXED – Faster processing of keywords that generate a single Maps Result in the New Google Maps

• FIXED – The Result Count label is now updated properly when filters change when using custom filtering

• FIXED – For Maps Results that don’t have a website link, Places Scout would return ‘null’ or ‘javascript:void(0)’ as the website link. This has been fixed.

• FIXED – Parsing Average Rating from Kudzu

• IMPROVED – Various performance enhancements have been made when gathering SERP results

• FIXED – Gathering Results from Google Maps that would cause no results to come back in the Find Local Clients Module and other issues that are now fixed in this update

• FIXED – Gathering +Local Page link for all 7-Pack results as well as keywords that produce a single blended result in the Organic SERPs (typically when searching an exact business name)

• FIXED – Parsing Address Data from +Local Page in some cases

• IMPROVED - Addresses are now split properly into Street Address, City, State, and Zip in the case where there is no +Local page link for a business in the Find Local Clients module

• NEW – Additional business data can now be gathered for results that do not have a +Local page link in the Find Local Clients module. Previously Places Scout would only gather additional business data if the result had a +Local Page Link available.

• NEW – When a ranking report is configured to return only the first ranked result for each keyword, Places Scout will now stop unnecessarily gathering additional SERP result pages when the tracked site ranks on the current SERP page.

• IMPROVED – Faster detection of invalid Google Location Settings

• NEW Data Gathering Setting – ‘Block Ads When Gathering Data’ – If checked, all ads will be blocked when gathering data (default value is checked, highly recommended that you keep this setting checked unless you are having troubles gathering data).

This critical update removes the option to gather the old 'Places' SERPs, as Google recently removed the ability to access the old Places SERPs. Since gathering Places SERPs was the default setting, many users reported that no results were coming back due to this change by Google, and this has been fixed in the update. Places SERPs are now replaced by Maps SERPs in all modules.

IMPORTANT NOTE: The 'Use Real Browser to Gather Data' setting must be enabled to gather Maps Results. This means that you MUST check this setting when using the Find Local Clients and Citation Finder modules, as well as the Rank Tracker module when a ranking report is configured to gather Maps Results. The only case that you can disable using the real browser is when running a ranking report where the 'Number of Maps Results to Gather' setting is set to 0.

IMPORTANT NOTE #2: When searching for Maps Results for in some cases for certain keywords (ex: business names), Google will take you directly to a single result on the Map, and there will be no list of results for that keyword. We have added support to return a single result with the proper result data in these cases.

Release Notes

• REMOVED – Option to Gather ‘Places’ SERP results from all modules, as Google is no longer providing access to the old Places SERPs. Places Scout will now gather ‘Maps’ results instead of Places SERPs for all modules.

• FIXED – Gathering Maps Result data in the case where a keyword searched in Maps takes you directly to a single business on the Map. A single Maps Result with the proper data gathered is now returned in this case.

• NEW FEATURE / SETTING –Ability to run a ranking report for ONLY Organic Results, allowing you to exclude gathering Maps results and rankings for the Ranking Report. You can set this up by editing a ranking report, going to the ‘Report Settings’ tab, and selecting ‘0’ for the ‘Number of Maps Results to Gather’ setting.

• NEW FEATURE – Bulk Save to PDF button is now available in the Create Client Reports module. You can now bulk save all ranking reports to a PDF file using this new feature. Previously the bulk save was only available for saving as HTML.

Hope everyone's summer is off to a great start! Enjoy!

Places Scout Version 2.7.7 has just been released!

Included in this update are two new highly requested data items in the Find Local Clients module – the number of +Local Page Views and Followers, as well as several minor bug fixes when gathering Maps results and running reputation reports.

Places Scout Version 2.7.7 Release Notes

• NEW – The number of +Local Page Followers and Profile Views is now available in the Find Local Clients Module!
  • You can find these values under the ‘+Local Followers’ and ‘+Local Profile Views’ columns in the grid view.
• FIXED – Parsing the current Google Location Setting when NOT using the real browser – The issue was not changing the actual location setting, rather reading the current location setting after it was changed, and this bug did not affect users who have the ‘Use Real Browser to Gather Data’ setting checked.
• FIXED – Properly tracking rankings for domains that end in .co.uk – a bug was introduced in the last version that caused the incorrect tracking for domains that end in .co.uk, and this has been fixed.
• FIXED – Parsing the proper average rating from Yelp
• FIXED – Gathering Reviews from the new Kudzu layout, as well as auto-populating Kudzu listing URLs.
• FIXED – Gathering reviews from all sections on Urbanspoon and parsing review dates.
• FIXED – Generating the proper hyperlinked keyword when clicking a ranking in the grid view of the Rank Tracker in some cases
• FIXED – An error would occur when using the ‘Gather Additional Data for Current Results’, if any of the current results were 7-Pack results – This has been fixed.
• FIXED – Parsing Maps Results from the old Maps layout if present – The code was updated to parse results from the new Maps layout, but the old layout is still being displayed in some cases. The code now detects which Maps layout is present, and parses the results accordingly.
• FIXED – When gathering Maps results, if there is only 1 page of results (i.e. no next button), Places Scout would unnecessarily wait for the next button, causing a slow down in gathering results. This no longer occurs.
• FIXED – When gathering Maps Results, in rare cases for some keywords, the ‘Maps’ link is link sometimes under the ‘More’ menu instead in the Main menu, causing Places Scout not to click this link properly and gather Maps results. This has been fixed and support has been added to check for this case and properly click the ‘Maps’ link if it is under the ‘More’ menu.
• FIXED – When gathering Maps Results, in some cases where the keyword searched takes the browser directly to a business on the map and there is no option to list maps results for that keyword, Places Scout would not return any Maps results. This has been fixed so that Places Scout returns the single result that appears on the Map in this case.
• FIXED – For users who have the Skype Click to Call plugin installed, phone numbers would sometimes be displayed twice (i.e. (555) 555-5555(555) 555-5555). This issue has been fixed so the phone is not displayed twice.
• NOTE: Rank 6 is now color coded yellow instead of red in the Rank Tracker to make it consistent with the color coding of other grid views.
• NEW – There is a now a ‘View Current License Code’ in Settings Manager for reference

Enjoy!

Best Regards,
Mark Kabana
Places Scout Development Team