David Mihm has put together a detailed infographic of the history of Google Places, from its beginning in March of 2004 as Google Local to the creation of the Google Place Page in October 2009 and the final re-branding of business listings to Google Places. In the timeline he also includes significant personnel changes at Google, product changes, changes to the look of Local/Maps/Places, news and the launch of other local/mobile products.
I’ve been working in Local Search on a daily basis since June of 2008 and consider myself an expert in the field. Even so, I’m still amazed by the changes and growth in that amount of time. I keep abreast of the news and blog about it here, but seeing it all in one place is very cool. As always, David Mihm has done a great job.
Here’s a small version of the graphic. For a full-sized version, click on it to go to the source:
