

Closed, Says Google, but Shops’ Signs Say Open - NaOH
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/06/technology/closed-in-error-on-google-places-merchants-seek-fixes.html?pagewanted=all

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buro9
One near us that I've been trying to fix for a few months now:
<http://maps.google.co.uk/maps/place?cid=4953579680281476323>

It's the best Sushi in West London, but when the owner entered into a deal
with some other stores to create a common brand to help increase awareness and
sales someone must have reported it as closed.

It's the same staff, same menu, same decor, same everything... except the
name.

As I use Google Places a fair bit I felt that others might not go because of
the listing, so I've been trying to fix their listing without a great deal of
luck so far.

At least this conversation reminded me to click "Not true" yet again. Perhaps
today a Googler will read this and 're-open' them.

~~~
ghshephard
Google needs a "Name changed to xxxx" option alongside "Permanently Closed" in
this situation, with a pointer to the new place.

~~~
jonknee
They have that (instead of report a problem, click "Edit this place"). They
also let you change your own businesses name whenever you want. It's an easy
process.

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jonknee
They should use the same mailed postcard / phone validation that they do when
claiming your listing. If someone answers or replies, not closed.

~~~
bradleyland
That's probably a bit too much overhead for something like this. Imagine the
number of businesses that close each year, then imagine Google sending a
postcard to each.

I've been through the postcard validation, and it's pretty painless. I'd
prefer some notification options that includes the ability to receive an email
before my location is marked as closed. A thresholding algorithm could be used
to detect abuse. If a location is repeatedly marked as closed, but the owner
of the listing verifies that they're still open every time, a listing could be
flagged for further inspection. Subsequent requests to close could be prompted
for more information, which Google staff could then use to take action.

All of this requires more attention from Google, and I'd imagine that the Maps
business already runs on pretty thin margins. Google's approach to most of
these problems is to use an "85% solution" (I mean that 80% figuratively, not
literally). That is, they choose a solution that works for "most" situations,
but falls apart when abuse is present, but they don't really care, because
those edge cases don't affect their bottom line.

~~~
jonknee
Everything is expensive at scale, but so are the rewards. I would try phone
first, then postcard which is the order they want to do them when claiming a
business.

For claimed businesses they can more easily contact you in case of a closed
notification (they have your email address even) and should not take someone's
word unless they can't get ahold of you.

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gaius
Let me guess, you got a call from an "SEO expert" but declined to use his
services. Then you were listed on Google as closed.

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kordless
Seriously Google? Why remain tightlipped about this? This is the way the end
starts.

~~~
jsnell
They've acknowledged the problem and said that they are working on fixing it.
That's not enough? Nothing good can come from going into more detail than that
- both in the PR sense of hoping that the story just dies quietly, but also in
an engineering sense.

For example talking about the operational details on how exactly things are
verified would just make gaming the system easier. They probably don't know
the exact magnitude of the problem, it would take valuable engineering time to
come up with even a rough approximation, and it should be obvious that it's
better to not comment than to just guess. You probably couldn't give a
coherent explanation of why the "not true" doesn't stick without going into
very tedious details of the data pipeline and serving infrastructure.

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matdwyer
Although it is annoying, a small coffee shop like that MAY have a couple of
searches a week that would bring up that listing. Article makes it sound like
they are losing out on thousands of $$$

~~~
reginaldo
I think the biggest concern is people passing by the interstate with their gps
on. One can now imagine literally thousands of people just passing by, and
seeing that the place is closed, or maybe not seeing anything at all in their
gps screen.

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ericxtang
Like any kind of spamming, I'm sure it will be stopped, especially if it's not
even automated.

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gnu6
It's baffling that no one at Google is able to foresee obvious ways of abusing
the features of their products. It really should be someone's job to try to
anticipate these problems and prevent them before new products or features are
released.

