Brownbook has always been accessible on .net .com .biz .info .mobi and .org… with all resolving to brownbook.net, but it’s always challenging to test them without the browser trying to help you type or various layer of caching at the browser level, cloudflare and server level… so this is a page mainly for internal use that we can open in an incognito browser and test all variants of each domain:
Our world class engineering team has gone the “whole hog” to help you easily utilise the Brownbook api.
We have launched and documented an SDK to help you use the Brownbook api to submit your listings to Brownbook (so minimal coding to be able to use the api). The normal Swagger piece is still there, but we have now packaged the code so you can use it really easily. There are now official Brownbook libraries in; java, python, typescript, go, php and javascript…
Send requests from your applications, via the Brownbook API, get API token etc, its all explained here: https://docs.brownbook.net/
The Brownbook API is built on HTTP, its RESTful and it: – Uses predictable, resource-oriented URLs – Uses built-in HTTP capabilities for passing parameters and authentication – Responds with standard HTTP response codes to indicate errors – Returns JSON_
A few weeks ago we made the Uberall platform live on Brownbook. In this video we use the platform ourselves for the first time to list the Brownbook UK office location. As we added a UK business, the platform selects the most relevant UK and global directories, and websites and replicates our listing automatically to them all (see image below). In the next video we will add our US office and show how a different set of directories and websites are selected that are relevant to the US.
As noted in the video we have more work to do to enable our social channels on the platform and make the ‘reputation management’ part of the platform spring to life.
At Brownbook.net we have great relationships with all the top ‘listing management’ businesses around the world, most of which use our api to submit businesses to Brownbook. Many of these ‘listing management’ businesses manage the online presence and social presence for hundreds of thousands and even millions of businesses across the world. One such ‘listing management’ and ‘reputation management’ business is Uberall.com.
Typically these ‘listing management’ businesses only offer their product to large multi-location businesses like Hilton Hotels or to yellow pages type businesses that have thousands of small to medium sized businesses as customers. So we asked Uberall if we could sell their product to our customers here at Brownbook and following many months of development we have finally launched the Uberall listing and reputation management product for you to use at a super competitive rate.
Here is a video where Dave describes the new product:
Having added your business to Brownbook for free, and then ‘claiming’ it for free you will be presented with and option to purchase the ‘listing and reputation management’ product from Uberall. This then propagates the details you have added to Brownbook to over 20 other listing web sites and then enables you to see what people are saying about your business on social media.
Depending on which country your business is in, will determine where your listing is sent, which you then manage from a single screen here at Brownbook. Here is a typical selection for a business in the UK:
This is what’s included in the listing and reputation manager product: – Manage your brand’s online reputation and presence across a network of 20+ global platforms for local search — including social networks, recommendation sites, directories, maps, navigation, GPS systems and review sites. – A consoles to manage your business listing on multiple directory sites, mapping services and review sites – A single location that enables you to manage your online reputation, see what people are saying about your business and manage your replies – Access to Uberall services which are not available direct from Uberall unless you have thousands of listings to manage
And one final consideration is that you can sign up today and cancel at anytime.
Please do let us know how you get on or have any more questions by emailing admin@brownbook.net
The ‘service area’ is useful for businesses to show the area in which they operate. The way to do this is to simply make the address such that Google can determine an area rather than an address point.
Please do remember to also use the ‘location tags’ to describe the area as well, as quite often these are not the same as a known Google mappable area and can include colloquial names for an area.
Thank you for all your help. We owe you a big big thank you for supporting Brownbook.net.
One of the pains of moving the whole of Brownbook to new systems last week was that we had some teething troubles… 40 million listings, millions of registered users…. We always new it was going to be challenging which is why we kept putting it off over the last few years. Its only when you consider the processing of hundreds of listings a second and do the maths you realise that its days of processing (even with the fastest of infrastructure and multi / hyperthreading…) to transfer Brownbook to a new modern infrastructure and code base.
So we fixed the password reset issues, the listing issues, the email confirmation issues and we are very nearly there. We have just a few small bugs to solve and the ‘search’ needs to finish indexing, then we can get on to the more exciting functions that you have been asking for.
We are in the process of making the new site live, please bear with us whilst all the functionality and indexes are transferred and created. It should only take a few hours, then we should be back to normal.
We started Brownbook.net in May 2008 and since then we have been working on the same PHP code, on a home-grown framework, using Sphinx search on AWS, with great success.
Now its time for a change… we are deep in to development of Brownbook version 2, which we are hoping to have live within the next 8 weeks. This will give us all an improved experience as it uses Laravel Vapor serverless deployment, React Material design and some of the new AWS services. The improvements we will see include:
a maintainable code base so we can quickly release improvements
much improved SEO
faster more accurate searching
faster more reliable api usage
new interface that is quick and intuitive
For our API customers, we will be using the same api calls so there will be no need for you to make any changes.
For our users, we will use the same username and login service so you will not have to re-register.
We are looking forward to sharing more information very shortly.
I’m thrilled to announce that Brownbook and Web.com have teamed up to offer all small business a free Digital Health Check, and a £50 voucher to spend on any Web.com services.
For every business listing on Brownbook, the team at Web.com is offering a FREE Digital Health Check PLUS a £50 voucher to spend on Web.com services. Web.com offers website Health Checks that identify any key issues that could be affecting the ranking or performance of your website across the web (not only on Brownbook.net) and provide vital information about the optimisation of your website. The team offers a friendly, no obligation consultation to determine any improvements that can be made to help to make your website work harder for you!
“We’re delighted to be partnering with Brownbook to offer free Digital Health checks to their local business customers,” says Alastair Thornton, UK Country Manager of Web.com. “We are finding more and more local businesses needing help with the complex world of local online marketing, and by working with Brownbook we are able to provide a quick and easy solution, plus discounts on key services for those businesses who take up the offer.”
Brownbook and Web.com will start rolling out the service in August and September 2016, with the free consultations for a select group of Brownbook business customers, before a widespread general roll-out later in the year. Don’t miss this great opportunity to make your website work harder for you!!!
It was about time… this week the team completed the facelift of Brownbook, the first in 8 years. Times have moved on and we have been desperate to do the work for a few years, but simply did not have the time.
We have also had the opportunity to correct broken links and really do a spring clean on the whole site. Great news.
Brownbook - The Global Business Listing Database 