According to Bill Slawski’s patent review they are attempting to do this, why so unsuccessfully in the medical arena escapes me.

Mike

I noticed how G maps recently added a picture off my website to the G maps data. They chose and pulled the picture, from amongst a number of different pics.

It was interesting and an interesting choice…and one that as a business owner I wouldn’t argue with…but might possibly have suggested a different pic.

Now if they can pull a pic…independantly determine relevancy…and post the pic….then they can review phone numbers on the site.

Seeing how the phone number issue is one that has caused some problems for some sites/institutions/businesses and certainly the people calling those numbers…it might be appropriate to focus on that aspect of the vast G maps data base. Even starting with one type of entry; say medical centers.

1. Scrape the site for appropriate phone numbers.
2. Match the phone numbers against those accumulated through the vast amount of directories
3. Check to make sure that most current and appropriate phone numbers are listed within G maps data.

That would be a big improvement…and were they to be successful G would be lightyears ahead of other local data sources. (of course any version of a local SE could try the same.)

Dave

I looked at your first example, Pittsburgh, Pa Medical Center. The link takes you to the G maps listing for Mercy Hospital with 2 phone numbers. Then I went to the website. That is for Pittsburgh Mercy Health System. This is a large institution with 11 separate locations in the region for all types of facilities. Scroll through the locations and you’ll find that one of the two phone numbers listed is for Mercy Hospital. The 412-232-8111 number is accurate for one facility.

I scrolled through the other locations and it didn’t match the 2nd number in the G maps directory information. Each of the 11 facilities has a different main number but not the 2nd number listed; 412-232-7950. I went to the main contact number for the website and it was a 3rd phone number; 412-232-5660.

I would think that G maps specifically and other similar sources, like Y and MSN Local need to take a step to clean the data–primarily sourcing the information from the website and not any other source. Directory information can be old and outdated. Website information should be the most updated.

Of all sources of this ilk, though, Google insertion of maps is clearly seeing more traffic than any other source and is driving more calls off the G maps inserts. Its clearly something that needs to be fixed.

How this is corrected is up to Google. It certainly needs some reconstructive surgery.

Dave

The data pretty much speak for themselves, no?

I didn’t check the website….that is a good idea. If the data doesn’t get cleaned up in a 2 or 3 months perhaps I will revisit.

This particular problem seems to afflict this vertical more so than others and I am not really sure why. Perhaps meidcal centers have more to worry about than their Google listing or perhaps because they are somewhat outside of the profit incentives that motivates others to get their records squared away.

As I pointed out, one really needs to test the OneBox results and see if the are “accurate enough” as I am sure that they have more impact than these results.

Mike

You are much nicer about this stuff than me. LOL. And your research is great. Did you check the actual websites also? I’d assume their contact information is more accurate.

I’d think there needs to be a way to get contact information directly from existing websites rather than the directories.

It is so easy to change those numbers all the time. That is why websites are so terrific. You can update them immediately and represent new accurate information…rather than something that was recorded a long time ago.

Nice research.

Dave

Mike Blumenthal has a detailed look at some of the inaccuracies Google Maps and other local search engines have when it comes to phone listings of medical centers. Mike has been following these inaccuracies for a while and has come up with a grid showi…