Local shops for local people
This morning I had a few local errands to run, and took some shoes to be resoled at the local locksmith/key cutter/cobbler just off the Muswell Hill Broadway. They said I could wait white the boots were repaired, so I sat reading the paper to pass the time. Working for Google, I tend to hear the name of my employer quite a lot in snatched conversation, and I could hear the guys in the shop talking about the rankings of their web site and that of a rival. In particular they were wondering if they could complain to Google. It seems there's a lot of competition in the locksmith trade. I asked what the issue was, and apparently it was a rival locksmith which isn't based in Muswell Hill but operates in the region. They've managed to get their site above that of the local shop on the local map search using a dubious tactic or two and this had raised the hackles of the "true" local shop with phrases like "this has lead to the widespread misunderstanding that shoe re