While the Google Local Business Center may be no more, it’s hardly dead. In efforts to streamline and simultaneously enhance user experience for both searching customers and listed businesses, the Google Local Business Center has been reincarnated into Google Places . Some features of the nifty new Google Places include:

• Google now allows businesses to show potential customers which areas they serve.
• Business photo shoots allows businesses in select cities to showcase the interior of their buildings and offices.
• Customized QR codes will allow smartphone cameras to scan a business’s  image code and be taken directly to the mobile version of their Place Page.
• The Favorite Places program, similar to Yelp’s customer review-driven “People Love Us” or Citysearch’s “Best of” programs will be sending out window decals to 50,000 popular businesses in the United States. These decals will conveniently include the business’s QR code for customer scanning convenience.