Google is always adding simple yet incredibly useful tools to its search engine in order to compete with the likes of Bing, and its latest such feature is geared towards live music fans. The company is now providing direct links to Ticketmaster sales pages whenever you search for a particular band or venue.
If you search for a band or live venue, there’s a high chance it’s because you want to buy tickets for an upcoming show. Google is now making that easier by displaying upcoming events in the search results, with a direct link to purchase tickets. It may take a few days to start seeing these results, as Google has just explained to webmasters for bands and venues the steps they need to take to ensure the information shows up in searches. They can either add a little HTML to their webpages, or install a widget that does it for them. If you’re a performer and want full details of how to add the necessary code or widget, see the detailed instructions and sample code here. Some venues won’t have to do anything: if they sell tickets through an external agency like TicketWeb, the agency takes care of the markup and Google ensures that it shows up in venue searches.