Jade Wang, Community Manager for Google Places, announced via Google+ yesterday that new social features and multi-admin functionality will be coming to the Google Places bulk location management tool.
Here are some more details about the new features:
Status of your locations on Maps: Google will now show you a column that describes the status of each location on Maps. At a glance you will see which of your locations are live, unverified, have errors or data conflicts, are duplicates, or are pending review.
Updated data conflicts interface: If a location page displays different data on Maps and search results compared to what’s in your dashboard, the updated interface will show you the details. Google will show you what is live, and which field is different from what’s in your dashboard. From there, you’ll be able to take action.
Improved edit timeframe: Google is working on improving the speed with which data goes live.
Google+ pages: Social features will be automatically enabled for each location in upgraded and verified accounts. If you wish to use these social features for a particular location, just hover over Live in the status column and click on the Google+ icon.
Adding and removing managers: Each location and its corresponding Google+ page can now only have one verified owner. The idea behind this change is to help ensure multiple verified users for the same location are not automatically overwriting each other’s business information.
Each location will be able to have multiple managers to share the responsibilities of updating data or making social media posts, the owner will be able to give manager access to other accounts. You can add or remove managers for a particular location by selecting that location and then clicking on Add managers.
You can also transfer ownership to another user if you no longer wish to be associated with a particular location. If you’re a manager and no longer wish to be associated with the location, you can remove yourself as a manager.
Currently, these new features are only available for upgrades accounts, but Jade Wang states they are working on upgrading more accounts as quickly as they can.
