A Social, Local Roundup (Small Business E-commerce Link Digest)

Well, Google’s had a crappy week, huh?

Their quarterly earnings were released early due to “human error,” (surprising all of us who’d come to believe Google didn’t allow errors — or humans, for that matter). Plus, those earnings weren’t so hot , at least by Wall Street’s standards (they’d be astonishing for many other companies).

Meanwhile, France is looking at legislation Google says threatens their very existence .

Oh and Reuters reports the FTC is close to hitting Google with an antitrust suit .

Now, I’ve been following Google’s antitrust woes over the last few years in posts like “ What every small business needs to know about Google’s antitrust investigation ,” “ Should Google’s antitrust woes worry you? ”
“ What Google vs. FairSearch.org and the US Senate Means to You ” and “ Google, ITA and the coming antitrust war, ” so I’m not too surprised by this.

So, just for fun, let’s pretend there’s a world without Google and see what else you can do to grow your business without ’em:

• Search Engine Watch shows how brands use Instagram for visual marketing .
• Social Media Today climbs on the Instagram bandwagon with a look at 4 brands using Instagram really well .
• Search Engine Land looks at how Yelp outed 8 businesses it caught trying to buy reviews .
• PageLever has data showing 1 out of 5 new Facebook fans now comes from mobile–a 280% increase from May to August .
• BazaarVoice says Twitter volume reflects stock price plus a whole lot more
• And, finally, TechCrunch outlines Google promotions launch on Google Shopping and how it enables distribution to Google Offers & Maps on Android, too. OK, I know I said there would be no Google. But, is that even possible to imagine?

Have a great weekend, Big Thinkers . We’ll see you back here next week.

Are you getting enough value out of your small business website?Want to make sure your business makes the most of the local , mobile , social web? thinks helps you understand how to grow your business via the web, every day. Get more than just news. Get understanding. Add thinks to your feed reader today .

Or subscribe via email .

And while you’re at it, don’t forget to follow Tim on Twitter .

Tim Peter & Associates helps companies from startups to the Fortune 500 use the web to reach more customers, more effectively every day. Take a look and see how we can help you.

Technorati Tags: social , social commerce , social marketing , social media predictions , social search , social strategy , strategy