Comments on: Google Maps: The cacophony of complaints continue, links to the dead? http://blumenthals.com/blog/2008/03/04/google-maps-the-cacophony-of-complaints-continue/ Developing Knowledge about Local Search Tue, 21 May 2013 21:28:43 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.1 By: Mike Blumenthal http://blumenthals.com/blog/2008/03/04/google-maps-the-cacophony-of-complaints-continue/comment-page-1/#comment-210156 Mike Blumenthal Thu, 06 Mar 2008 03:51:00 +0000 http://blumenthals.com/blog/2008/03/04/google-maps-the-cacophony-of-complaints-continue/#comment-210156 Hi Jim

Thanks for stopping by. Google seems to have someone stop into the groups about 1 every two weeks. You will see a burst of responses from Jen or Silene in one fell swoop and then they will go quiet. They never catch up with the backlog nor have they been forthcomng with answers.

I would agree that bad customer services is worse than no customer service.

Mike

]]> By: Jim http://blumenthals.com/blog/2008/03/04/google-maps-the-cacophony-of-complaints-continue/comment-page-1/#comment-210117 Jim Thu, 06 Mar 2008 01:25:57 +0000 http://blumenthals.com/blog/2008/03/04/google-maps-the-cacophony-of-complaints-continue/#comment-210117 I find the one of the most interesting aspects of these Google Groups posts is there is primarily only 1 viewing for each post. In other words, nobody from Google responds in any way. I don’t care what the answer might be, but at least answer someone. It’s a case study in how not to treat ‘customers’. If Google’s goal is to present relevant information to searchers, you would thing that Google would help people who are only trying to help them accomplish this.

Full Disclosure, I’m the Jim from post #5 on the Google Maps Group. It’s been a week, no response at all, I doubt there will be.

P.S. Yahoo maps was up and running flawlessly for all 27 sites I submitted.

]]> By: earlpearl http://blumenthals.com/blog/2008/03/04/google-maps-the-cacophony-of-complaints-continue/comment-page-1/#comment-209709 earlpearl Tue, 04 Mar 2008 21:40:27 +0000 http://blumenthals.com/blog/2008/03/04/google-maps-the-cacophony-of-complaints-continue/#comment-209709 Mike:

Excuse my mistake. I should have used a different writer’s name for clarity.

The point is …wouldn’t it be neat to go back to all those writers and ask if they got help, assistance, or clarity after two weeks or so.

:D

Dave

]]> By: MiriamEllis http://blumenthals.com/blog/2008/03/04/google-maps-the-cacophony-of-complaints-continue/comment-page-1/#comment-209706 MiriamEllis Tue, 04 Mar 2008 21:33:29 +0000 http://blumenthals.com/blog/2008/03/04/google-maps-the-cacophony-of-complaints-continue/#comment-209706 Wow, a day in the life of Local Business Owners!

If they keep asking the same questions, will Google finally get tired and fix the problems?

I believe there’s a parable in the Bible that goes exactly like that about a widow and a corrupt judge.

Interesting to see this highlighted, Mike!
Miriam

]]> By: Mike Blumenthal http://blumenthals.com/blog/2008/03/04/google-maps-the-cacophony-of-complaints-continue/comment-page-1/#comment-209701 Mike Blumenthal Tue, 04 Mar 2008 21:05:31 +0000 http://blumenthals.com/blog/2008/03/04/google-maps-the-cacophony-of-complaints-continue/#comment-209701 Hi Dave-

That’s a different Mike. I posted about YourPainIsReal (ah yes isn’t it) merged data on Feb. 27th to which I have not received an answer.

Doing a follow up in several weeks would unlikely show much movement.

Mike

]]> By: earlpearl http://blumenthals.com/blog/2008/03/04/google-maps-the-cacophony-of-complaints-continue/comment-page-1/#comment-209700 earlpearl Tue, 04 Mar 2008 20:58:47 +0000 http://blumenthals.com/blog/2008/03/04/google-maps-the-cacophony-of-complaints-continue/#comment-209700 Fascinating list Mike. It would be interesting to do a follow up in a week or two of this sort….

hey Mike (wrong categories complaint from 2/29/08.) Did you get a response and did the categories issue get resolved.?

;)

Dave

]]> By: Mike Blumenthal http://blumenthals.com/blog/2008/03/04/google-maps-the-cacophony-of-complaints-continue/comment-page-1/#comment-209662 Mike Blumenthal Tue, 04 Mar 2008 16:37:28 +0000 http://blumenthals.com/blog/2008/03/04/google-maps-the-cacophony-of-complaints-continue/#comment-209662 Hi Art

It isn’t clear to me what Google’s priorities are. What I see and what the typical searcher sees may not be the same thing and these problems while real to the small business people may or may not represent a significant % of the problems the searchers face when interacting with Google

That being said, these small business people should be viewed by Google as a powerful early warning system. If the business owner has heard about the problem from a customer and has taken action, they probably represent a significant proxy of the problems that are occurring. Certainly the repeating nature of the complaints and the effort that these folks have put into tracking down a solution should give Google pause for thought and hopefully action.

Mike

]]> By: Art http://blumenthals.com/blog/2008/03/04/google-maps-the-cacophony-of-complaints-continue/comment-page-1/#comment-209652 Art Tue, 04 Mar 2008 15:56:51 +0000 http://blumenthals.com/blog/2008/03/04/google-maps-the-cacophony-of-complaints-continue/#comment-209652 I know that this is very frustrating for many people. You would think that something like Google Maps results which takes up the top real estate on many searches would have a larger team devoted to making this feature more accurate and faster to update etc.

]]>