The Free Site Hosting | Reviews & Top Hosts

Just in time for the shopping craziness that is Black Friday, Google’s made it easier for companies to get coupons to consumers who are on the move.  Google Local Business Center users can now make their coupons accessible to people through mobile devices.

Yes, assuming that shoppers don’t lose the use of their fingers due to standing outside in the cold since 3 AM – or having them crushed during a stampede – getting discounts through their cell phones will be a relatively simple matter.

A post on the Google Mobile Blog explained, "If a business adds a mobile coupon to its Google Local Business Center listing, you’ll be able to access it from your mobile device.  Just go to google.com on your phone and search for a local business.  When you land on its Place Page, you’ll see any coupons or discounts that might be available.  Then simply show the participating business the coupon, right from your phone, to redeem the offer."

Or, if you feel like putting in a little prep time and carrying around some pieces of paper, Google’s refined the process of printing out the coupons from a computer as part of this update.

And of course, this way of accessing coupons will remain in place long after retailers close their doors today, so even people who aren’t able to take advantage of it soon may benefit at some other point in time.

Related Articles:

> Android Continues To Make Inroads

> Google Improves Google News On More Mobile Devices

> Google To Get More Interactive With Mobile Video Ads

Today Google announced a new AdWords feature called location extensions. The feature allows advertisers to add dynamic addresses to their ads.

"If you’re a business owner, you can set up extensions by linking an AdWords campaign to your Local Business Center (LBC) account," explains Emel Mutlu of Google’s Inside AdWords Crew. "If you’re not the primary business owner of the locations you’re advertising, you can manually enter addresses directly into AdWords."

"For example, a clothing brand that distributes to a number of different stores might want to associate their ads with various store locations through extensions, even though their official business address doesn’t correspond to those addresses," Mutlu adds.

Google matches business locations to users’ search terms and shows the address with advertisers’ text ads. When Google can’t determine a location or if the address isn’t relevant, users will just see the ad without the address.

Advertisers also have the option of not making the address dynamic. If they prefer, they can simply show a specific address for an individual ad.

Ads can show with their relevant extensions on Google and Google Maps. They will show as regular text ads without the extensions on partner sites.

Location extensions will become fully available in the coming weeks. Some advertisers already have access to the feature. Local business ads will no longer be a separate format. Advertisers who already have local business ads, however, will be happy to know that their ads will continue to run as long as they’re not edited.

More information about the local extensions can be found here.