How can this happen? The person who now has this listing is a competitor who doesn’t offer just locksmiths work but offers various stuff. A bit of a jack of all trades.

How can google just remove the full 10 listing and have this one person listed. He lives close to where I have my address so why am I not listed?

Chris

Thanks for checking back in on this.

Yes, it appears that the English schools are no longer in the Maps listing. However the fake listing at 100 Regent St for Nails & Beauty Academy is still there and a new beauty salon called Absolute Bliss at 308 Garratt Lane, London, SW18 4EH, United Kingdom‎ – 020 7381 5070. Go figure.

It is nice to see the 10 pack on this search as it provides meaningful results.

Mike

I think Google suspended Local Business results for the particular search then deleted the spammy listing before reinstating Local Business Results. I don’t know how much insight that gives into the workings of the Google machine. It definitely has some sort of manual on/off at the level of particular searches.

I think the idea is quite brilliant.

Google, according to Carter Maslan, is counting on user generated input to achieve greater accuracy in the records but I think your conception of it is incredibly interesting.

I am not sure that Google perceives the business community as a valuable resource. I think with something like your idea they could get a lot of good editing very inexpensively.

Mike

I’d like to see a selection of about 5 results that rotates from a pool of verified local businesses. Membership of the pool from which results are taken would depend upon verified, correct business categorisation, not upon being optimised for particular search terms. Rotation would mean that every eligible business would go in front of searchers in turn and spammers would have less to play for.

When you add or update your own business listing, you would be given a sample list of your local competitors and asked to flag business categorisation, names, addresses, phone numbers that are incorrect; without doing so you could not add or update your own listing. You could not directly change your competitor’s details but they would be flagged for checking; you would be encouraged to talk directly with your competitor and ask them to make the corrections themselves. More than a few false challenges would result in your own listing being flagged for checking. For a less labour-intensive solution, checking could simply mean that your business details are included more frequently on sample lists, including those given to non-competitor businesses that are local but outside your classification pool. Any doubt/dispute could be resolved by defaulting to the business’s details as shown in the Yellow Pages.

My theory is that legitimate businesses would tend to agree on identifying the spammers, whereas the spammers would find it difficult to sabotage legitimate businesses in a co-ordinated fashion.

What do readers think?

Thanks for keeping us posted.

Mike

My son also applied for that program and has never heard from Google, either. One never hears about it anymore.

I wonder how many folks are still in the program, what successes or failures it experienced, whether the participants made a living or went broke working for Google. If you or anyone knows of people in the program I would love to hear from them.

I think it would lead to generally more accurate local records but am not sur e, as long as Google offers self provisioning and the Authoritative OneBox, it would have stopped this abuse.

Mike