Location is hot in the technology world lately. As new services are created and achieve some sort of traction it is always a good idea to try each one. You never know how useful any particular service might be, especially until you give it a try.

Recently, both Foursquare and Google Places (originally Google Local) have opened up a new selection of services for business owners. You can now “claim” your business, your store, your venue and control the information that is shared via Foursquare check-ins, Google Search and Google Maps. Location is destined to be the next big thing, so organizing your own piece of location “real estate” could pay big benefits in the future.

How to claim your Googles Places listing?

• Visit http://places.google.com and login with your Google Account
• Click Add Listing
• Enter in your business information
• Google will perform a search looking for an existing business in your location
• Select your business and Click “Claim Listing” or, if your business was not found, select “Add Listing”
• Complete the questionnaire regarding location, hours and more and click “Submit”
• You will then be asked to verify your listing by phone or mail. I used the automated mail system to verify my listing in about 2 minutes.
• Now your Google Places listing will include  the label “Owner-verified listing”
• If you perform this verification first, you can use your Google Places page to verify your Foursquare venue in the next step

How to become a manager of a Foursquare Venue

• Visit http://foursquare.com
• Search for your business or venue
• If found, click the link “Are you the manager of this business?”
• Step through the 2 steps, using your Google Places URL, Yelp URL and others to verify your “ownership” of the Foursquare venue.
• As of yet, my Foursquare registration has not been confirmed or denied, but they also don’t list a timeline for confirmation of that registration.

Any questions? Drop a comment using the link above and I will offer whatever information I can.