Google Local is Now Google Places

Google has renamed the Google Local Business Center to Google Places and added even more useful functionality. One of the coolest things about Google Local Business Center “upgrading” to Google Places is the fact that businesses in select cities (larger ones at the moment) can request a photo shoot of their business for free.

Some other new features include:

• Hide private street addresses for businesses without storefronts or offices
• Simple advertising with Tags to highlight your business for a very low monthly cost
• Coupons formatted specifically for mobile phones
• Customized QR codes, which are scannable bar codes that let people bring up your Places profile on their mobile phones

These QR codes are already popping up all over town. It’s interesting to see how much influence Google has in the offline world, too.