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Business.txt Standard proposal @fesja August 31st

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Problem to solve Local businesses have to update their information on dozens of websites Websites have outdated information Users find info that it’s not correct

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business.txt A file with all the info of the local business in a standard format Websites will get that file and update their info when something changes Users will read the latest information It’s win-win-win!

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Example Name:  RJ  Grunts Categories:  American  Restaurant,  Bar Street:  2056  North  Lincoln  Park  W  (at  Dickens  Ave.) Zip:  60614 City:  Chicago State:  Illinois Country:  United  States Coordinates:  41.92012,  -­‐87.63645 Phone:  (1)  773-­‐929-­‐5363 Price  range:  $$ Price  description:  $9.95  burger,  $11.95  salad  and  soup  bar.  You  can  eat  for  $10-­‐20. Open:  Mon-­‐Fri  11.30am-­‐12am,  Sat  10am-­‐12am,  Sun  10am-­‐9pm Short  description:  Great  place  to  have  a  great  burger  and  salad  bar Website:  http://www.rjgruntschicago.com/ Twitter:  RJGruntsChicago Facebook:  http://www.facebook.com/rjgrunts Foursquare:  https://foursquare.com/v/rj-­‐grunts/42153000f964a5208c1f1fe3 Google:  https://plus.google.com/108935673850120788149/about?hl=en Yelp:  http://www.yelp.com/biz/rj-­‐grunts-­‐chicago TouristEye:  http://www.touristeye.com/RJ-­‐Grunts-­‐Chicago-­‐p-­‐2127

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Are people interested? 259 points and 109 comments in Hacker News 2nd most starred repository in Github on August 27th Discussion on the W3C newsletter Hundreds of discussions with SEOs

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Is it the best solution? Why not schema? Why not vCard/hCard? Why is it an external file? Is it safe against malicious behavior?

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Does Google support it? 1. A Google employee writes a personal thought 2. A SEO writes a post about that opinion: “Googler: Don't Use business.txt Files” 3. Someone writes in Twitter: “Google Says Don't Use Business.TXT file” 4. Be careful with what you read!

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Next steps Agree on the format Build the first plugins (Wordpress) Market the idea to local businesses devs Contact with websites to implement it

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Follow business.txt On Github: github.com/fesja/businesstxt Group: groups.google.com/forum/#! forum/businesstxt Feedback? Questions?