If you want to quickly add a new store to your store locator without amending your master data spreadsheet and re-uploading it, this option is for you.

Simply enter the store name and address (plus optional data fields), click "Add Store", and, well, that's it. This does mean there's a danger of data getting out of sync, but people kept asking for it, so here it is!

The Quick Add option can be found on the main menu when you log in to your account. The Quick Delete option is available via the Upload page.

If your business has a Facebook page (and it probably should!) then you can now add your Blipstar store locator as a tab to the fan page. The Blipstar viewer app takes less than a minute to set up and means any customers engaging with your Facebook page can easily search for their nearest physical location, turning virtual footfall into actual sales. The store locator is exactly the same as the one appearing in your site (the only difference being that it is a set width in order to fit within a Facebook page). Any changes you make in your Configuration panel will be reflected in your Facebook store locator - instantly!

Best of all, this ability is not an expensive optional extra - it comes as standard with any Blipstar Plus account, via the Publish page.

More details

You might have heard the news that Google is due to "start charging" for using its Maps API. This is partly correct, but don't panic! In reality only websites which have very high traffic volume will be affected (around 0.35% it is believed). Thankfully all Blipstar users fall well below the threshold, so it should have zero impact on Blipstar Plus users, and a fair-usage policy has always been in place. That said, as a pre-caution, the terms of service have been updated to set an upper limit of daily hits (15,000 per account). So, if you expect your store locator to receive more than that number of daily visitors to your store locator Blipstar Plus probably isn't the best solution for you. Needless to say Blipstar plans to continue using the excellent and (almost) free Google Maps for the foreseeable future!

The options available for how publishing your locator tool have been greatly extended. There are options for iframes, a Javascript pop-up, a JQuery lightbox, Joomla, Drupal, Wordpress, Google Earth. Whatever your website uses its more than likely you'll be able to use Blipstar Plus to provide a locator software solution. Sign in to your account and go to Publish to see the full list.

Blipstar Plus's ability for mobile devices to be location-aware has been improved! It now recognises a wider range of phones and has improved reliability. What does this mean? Customers can search for your nearest store/branch with one click rather than typing in an address/zip code etc. It doesn't get easier than that.

A new version of Blipstar Plus (v1.06) is now operational. Mainly bug fixes and a few new display options.

Blipstar Plus now allows you assign a "priority" to each store location, and stores with the highest priorities will always appear at the top of the results (regardless of distance). It's a simple way to ensure featured stores or favoured dealers are always top of the search results!

Blipstar Plus now allows you to define what products are available at each of your store, enabling your users to search for specific products! You simply add a field to your data called Products and separate each product type (or any category you like) with a ~ e.g.

Any type 1~Another type~Yet another type

and Blipstar Plus will do the rest. There is now also an option to search on the store name, rather than geographically.

Blipstar Plus now supports simple, and useful, search analytics. You can choose to record the geographic location and time each time someone uses your store locator. Then you can produce a range of graphs and maps to analyze the data. To start using the tool simply log into your Blipstar Plus account, go to the "Analyze" page and activate the Analytics monitoring option!

A new version of Blipstar Server (v2.0) has been released. The new version incorporates many of the recent improvements seen in Blipstar Plus (e.g. use on mobile devices) and is now easier than ever to set up.

The Blipstar Plus Store Locator (used by your customers to view your store locator) is now fully compliant with W3C web standards. This means that it works with as wide a range of web browsers as possible. Which is nice to know. Users with accessibility issues now have easy access to the simplified and screen-reader friendly Blipstar Plus Mobile version, from any computer, so they can also benefit from your Store Locator.

Blipstar Mobile is now available for all users with Blipstar Plus accounts. Your Blipstar Plus Store Locator is now accessible from most mobile devices, from basic cell phones through to advanced devices such as the iPhone/Android based devices. For maximum convenience Blipstar Mobile automatically determines the user's location using GPS or wifi-tracking (where available). So potential customers can find your nearest store whenever, and wherever, they are!

More information on Blipstar Mobile.

An updated version of Blipstar Plus (v1.03) has been released. The key improvement is speed and reduced loading times - it now utilizes the latest version of Google Maps and a faster method of displaying results. Driving directions have also been improved as has the importing of non-English characters and symbols. Users don't have to do anything themselves to benefit from the new version as it done transparently and automatically.

Work is nearing completion on a new feature for Blipstar Plus users called Blipstar Mobile. This option will allow users to access your store locator from mobile devices, from basic cell phones through to advanced devices such as the iPhone, Palm Pre and other smartphones. For maximum convenience Blipstar Mobile automatically determines the user's location using GPS or wifi-tracking (where available). So potential customers can find your nearest store whenever, and wherever, they are!

A new version of Blipstar Server (v1.08) has been released.

Happy New Year and best wishes for 2010. Thank you to all Blipstar users for their continued support, it is much appreciated!

Rather than being limited to the standard Latin alphabet you can now upload data in any language thanks to UTF-8 compliance.