As that video reveals, bricks-and-mortar bookstores received an online boost from Google yesterday, as the search company unveiled a new program called Favorite Places on Google.
With the program, 100,000 popular business around the country will receive “Favorite Place” status–receiving a special QR barcode decal. They can post the sticker outside the business and customers can scan the barcode with a smartphone to get more information from Google about the store. The Google Goggles function is building a growing library of visual searching tools as well.
Our digital sibling, eBookNewser, wrote about the implications for bookstores. Here’s more: “Want to find the most-Googled used bookstore in Wisconsin? Look for the window decal depicted above, which includes a bar code you can scan with your mobile phone to get–that’s right, search results. It’s getting harder and harder to tell where the Internet ends and the real world begins, but how else might these new features affect publishing, especially digital publishing?”