The popular Google Maps app has released an update today which allows you to search your Google Contacts. Users will sign in, and then be able to search for friends and family, bring up someone's address by name, and get directions to them. Note that this update isn't tied to your phone's Contacts, but your Google Contacts. That means that, in order to take advantage of this feature, you have to create a Google account if you haven't already. Google Contacts are tied to both Gmail and Google+.

For local small businesses, one of the keys to search engine marketing is making sure that if a customer is searching for your business, they can find it easily. This means making sure that your business has a regional listing in each of the major search engine's local directory, like Google+ Local or Bing Local. Customers are also using apps and social networks like Foursquare and Yelp to find, rate and review local businesses.

Foursquare, the location-based social network that lets you check in to businesses, has released an update to their app and overall service. They have implemented a unique Foursquare scoring system that ranks businesses in an effort to show you how popular a business is. According to their blog and the update:

With this update, we've made finding the best place even easier.

Now when you're searching for somewhere to go in Explore, you'll see a score next to the name of a place. It's our way to give you a quick sense of how much people love it.