
Hijacking the Verified Knowledge Panel - yvoschaap
https://yvoschaap.com/weblog/another_mass_hijack_attempt_of_the_google_search_results
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wodenokoto
I once helped a friend get his bar on Google Maps by claiming the business.
They send a physical letter to the address of the bar.

How do they go about claiming other people’s business? Do they just say “yeah,
I own the pizza parlor on food street 3, Ohio, but send verification to
startup avenue 10, Silicon Valley”?

~~~
yvoschaap
I forget this part in my blog post, but it goes like this. Once the website is
accepted as the official website of the business, you can claim ownership by
proving ownership of that website.

Given Slice owns the (fake official) website, it is instantly verified.

See:
[https://support.google.com/business/answer/7107242?hl=en](https://support.google.com/business/answer/7107242?hl=en)

> If you’ve already verified your business’s website with Google Search
> Console, you may be able to verify your listing instantly.

~~~
hef19898
And all of a sudden Slice is almost guaranteed to get the online orders for
any restaurant. Pretty slick. Also pretty disgusting. Sounds like something
Google should fix, and have every interest to fix.

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sytelus
How did they got #1 _and_ #2 results above real website which even has shorter
domain name? My guess: They bought off fake URL in various yellow pages
listing which Google then aggregates to believe it is the official URL.

~~~
fenwick67
I'm guessing that Slice just has a big team of engineers that have figured out
how to game Google's SEO, and the real restaurant doesn't.

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JMTQp8lwXL
Businesses built wholly on top of another business, much less a flaw in how
another business operates a tiny portion of their overall business, are doomed
to fail. They are 1 policy change at Google away from losing their intake
funnel -- a funnel that provides no value to anyone but Slice, but that is a
separate discussion.

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gimmeThaBeet
I just think of Sliceline from Silicon Valley, but like a digital version of
switching boxes.

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ausbah
wasn't there a B plot in Silicon Valley (the show) about something like this?
a pizza based start up doing unethical things in the name of growth?

~~~
rocketpastsix
yea, the company (I forget the name) was ordering Domino's or something, and
then repackaging the pizza in the fake companies branded pizza boxes and
delivering them.

~~~
ren01r
Sliceline. Almost the same business model as the Doordash story that broke a
week or so ago.

~~~
hef19898
That story gave me a good laugh! Not really funny, so, as it was real
businesses suffering from it.

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tinco
Are they buying .com and .net tld's to host a fake website for every single
business, just to outrank them on google? Is that cheaper than just paying for
the ad?

~~~
rodiger
these hyper-specific TLD's are likely quite cheap.

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qppo
What do the local restaurants say? Because the problem with Grubhub was that
they phished the businesses' customers - no permission or relationship with
the local businesses themselves.

My understanding of Slice is that they work directly with the pizza shops, so
do they have this as a part of their agreement?

~~~
oftenwrong
According to this HN user there were at least some instances of Slice doing
this without permission:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16824992](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16824992)

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ge96
Not sure if exactly similar but I had to get a tow a while back and the first
number I used on Google was not a local tow company. It was an SEO thing where
they charge higher and then call the local tow company, I guess good on them
but yeah idk... I suppose I did get what I wanted(a tow truck).

~~~
rexf
This happened with locksmiths too [https://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/10/your-
money/lead-gen-sites...](https://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/10/your-money/lead-
gen-sites-pose-challenge-to-google-the-haggler.html)

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mthoms
Surely, Google will quickly ban Slice like they do users who violate their
terms.

Just kidding. Slice has ad money to spend! They'll get a gentle slap on the
wrist.

~~~
oftenwrong
Whenever I find an instance of this in the wild (such as [1]), I try to add
the proper website as a correction, but Google typically will not accept the
change. I assume this is because the website URL was added by the "owner".

In other instances where I suggest edits to Google Places, they are accepted
almost immediately, since I am a decently-ranked Local Guide.

[1]
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23347930](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23347930)

~~~
floatingatoll
As of 2016, Google refused to get involved in business ownership disputes, and
left the final determination to whoever claimed the business first:

[https://cdn.verticalmeasures.com/wp-
content/uploads/2016/06/...](https://cdn.verticalmeasures.com/wp-
content/uploads/2016/06/GMB-Request-Current-Owner.jpg)

Has this improved since then?

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anilakar
How on earth aren't these guys behind the bars yet?

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cameronbrown
dupe:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23346971](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23346971)

~~~
jsnell
I disagree, this is not a dupe. That is a fluff piece for the company about
how they did the hard legwork of signing up customers. This post suggests that
they're fraudulently registering these business as their own.

