I suppose it was a little bit egotistical of me to think that since I hadn’t heard anything from the Google Local Business Referral (LBR) program, that it hadn’t really gotten off the ground. I got no acceptance letter, rejection letter, or any kind of letter so a few weeks ago I decided to figure out what was going on. What I found was that the LBR program is what was going on and it was going on without me. I was really more curious than anything else and was willing to hit a few areas with a high density of businesses during my lunch break, but this program really received a TON of attention for it to quietly slink into the background like it has. Anyway I checked the site and found this waiting for me:

Thanks for applying to become a Google Business Referral Representative. Your application is now on our waiting list.

Response to this program has been so positive that we now have enough representatives for our current needs.

However, we hope to expand the program to more representatives soon. Please note that this program is only available in the United States. We’ll keep your application on file. If we approve your application, we will contact you at a later date (at the email address we have on file for your Google Account).

We appreciate your interest!

- Google Local Business Referrals Team

I’m curious to see if this has been limited to a few large cities or is more widespread, the information available is pretty slim with Google trying to keep a lid on the information and, it appears, trying to keep a low profile. What I was able to glean is that participants have some map based tools (TechingMeOut.com) to help them locate businesses that they haven’t visited and avoid ones they or other contractors have gathered information from.