Google recently announced that they would be making significant updates in the Google Places user dashboard, but so far, the attitude shared among businesses on Google Places is generally unimpressed. Unfortunately for Google Places users and developers alike, it seems to be too early to judge whether or not the changes can be considered an improvement. While the verdict remains undecided, here are a few things you should keep in mind when exploring the updated Google Places dashboard:

The updated dashboard is immediately available to newly created and newly verified business locations in the United States. Existing users will have to remain patient for the updates to be rolled out to older verified listings.  For the time being, availability is limited to locations within the United States.

This new dashboard has severely improved the relationship between Google Places and Google+ Local listings. Now data from your Google Places listing is fed directly into the Google Knowledge Graph, making it easier to manage across Google apps. At the same time, Google is advising businesses to not merge their Google Places and Google+ Local pages just yet. The plan seems to be to eventually implement an “Upgrade” option to make the merge and data migration as simple as possible.

The new dashboard interface advises users with tips for completing the fields of their listing; however, there has also been a decrease in number of overall fields, meaning less options for customization. On the other hand, Google is adding new listing options for service area businesses for the first time.

All updates made through the new Google Places dashboard should be reflected live within 48 hours; however, anticipate photo updates to take longer, and users will now be required to use a personal Google+ account in order to add video content to their listing.

A bone of contention among users who already have access to this new dashboard is that the analytics reported on Google+ listings are still weak and in need of improvement; however, search engine experts are advising patience. It seems as though this is just the first phase of SEO-friendly updates being rolled out by Google, and users should anticipate greater improvements over time.

At this point, every webmaster and Internet marketer is aware of the recent Google Penguin update that deployed an “over-optimization penalty” earlier this year. This new penalty means that sites utilizing black-hat SEO techniques, such as keyword stuffing, would see a decrease in their search engine ranking.

This update differed from the previous Google Panda algorithm updates, which focused on penalizing user-unfriendly sites instead; however, the goal is the same: to display higher quality sites at the top of Google search results. Just last week, Google’s Matt Cutts announced that Google Penguin will see another change in an attempt to target low-quality “exact match” domains indexed by the search engine.

An “exact match” domain is a website URL that consists of search terms. For instance, Top10NewYorkSalons.com (which is not a real website) would qualify as an “exact match” domain because “top 10,” “New York,” and, “salons” are all search terms. Therefore owners of similarly built domains should anticipate a Google penalty in the near future.

Over the coming days, webmasters should get ready for changes in search results and rankings; however, tech analysts are more reassuring, and have noted that this update doesn’t mean all domains that include a keyword will see penalties. On the contrary, Google is simply aiming to eliminate a high search ranking for sites lacking in quality content, using black-hat SEO techniques, and only earning traffic due to their “exact match” domain.

On Tuesday,  in an interview at TechCrunch Disrupt, Mark Zuckerberg said that Facebook handles a billion search queries on a daily basis. When asked if he’d consider transforming the social network into a  social search engine, Zuckerberg revealed that this is not only being considered by the company, but that there is already an ongoing effort for a more comprehensive search tool in the works.

Right now, Facebook search is primarily used to find people — family, friends, colleagues, and classmates; however, a good portion of that one billion daily searches is seeking brands. Zuckerberg went on to describe Facebook as “uniquely positioned” for a big opportunity to break into the search space, particularly from a brand perspective.

Despite having nothing concrete to announce in the realm of search, and plenty of other projects in the works (like the overhaul of its mobile app), Zuckerberg’s interview allowed the audience at TechCrunch Disrupt to walk away with the same underlying message: Facebook will soon introduce the first social search engine.

While Facebook does have the opportunity to do something unique and groundbreaking with their current position, users are wondering if they’ll actually see something new, or if Facebook’s take on search will mimic that of Google+. At the same time, Facebook has the clear advantage with the social data necessary to take on Google, the ultimate search giant, in this new venture.

At the end of May, Google made major changes to their local search offerings by replacing Google Places with Google+ Local. The update automatically changed approximately 80 million local business profiles to Google+ Local pages.

Google+ users will have already noticed a “Local” tab on their G+ homepages. In many ways, the functionality of the local search remains intact. The biggest changes include the appearance of business pages, and the integration of these pages across other Google tools such as search, maps, and G+, and mobile.

Google+ Local has also incorporated features from Zagat such as business reviews, which all users can access for free. Additionally, Google+ users can see what their friends and colleagues are saying about a given local business by filtering reviews from their circles.

The local search now operates on Zagat’s 30-point rating scale as opposed carrying over the star ratings from Google Places. Local business owners may see changes in their local SEO influence through these new Google+ Local pages, where customer reviews and social interactions develop organically. Since the Google+ Local pages have not yet made any noticeable impact on search engine results, however, small businesses should not be hasty in halting existing marketing campaigns.

Jumping to Google to find something on the web is second nature to most Internet users. With Knowledge Graph, unveiled by Google earlier this week, instead of using the search engine only to find the most reliable websites in response to a search query, Google results now provide more information directly to users without having to visit other sites.

For instance, a search for “Benjamin Franklin” pulls up your standard web results such as his Wikipedia page, other encyclopedias, and educational resources. The Knowledge Graph comes into play in a new sidebar on the right side of the screen. The sidebar results for Benjamin Franklin include some key biographical information, such as his date of birth and death, as well as his bibliography, educational background, and links to similar searches (such as Thomas Jefferson).

Instead of navigating users to other websites, like its standard search results, clicking any of the links or images that appear in the Knowledge Graph triggers a brand new Google search. For example, to learn about any of Benjamin Franklin’s children, users can simply click their name in the Knowledge Graph to automatically conduct a search for that person.

Ultimately the restructured search results allow for a more comprehensive and educational experience with each query. There is already talk of other major search engines changing in response to the Knowledge Graph.  Microsoft, for one, has announced an upcoming overhaul of Bing. Users should expect others to similarly follow in Google’s footsteps in the coming months.