(1) Spam reports not acted upon quickly;

(2) unverified listings stealing web data from live, verified listings and no data merge after community edits and waiting three plus weeks;

(3) spammers still basically dominating 1, 3, 10 packs;

(4) Spam reporting form that is onerous and difficult to use would explain any decline in spam reports. (Since you have to do a separate report for each keyword string you can spend hours reporting one business ranking for many terms)

(5) Even sillier, even after Jen made it clear that a business must use it’s real business name, the vast majority of businesses ranking in maps are keyword stuffed business names.

(6) Businesses with multiple listings for same address still dominate search results and are not removed as far as I have seen – in a reasonable time (using variations of phone numbers and keyword stuffed titles, reversing the business addresses, etc.)

Dont get me wrong, Maps is awesome, but it appears certain people are out of touch with reality if they actually think things are better. Problems don’t get solved in a timely fashion. There is little or no help in getting problems resolved as there USED TO BE!

This makes it a real bummer for guys like me.

@Jonathan
Self interest is not a naturally predetermined human trait but it is one that is highlighted and reinforced by the context. Both the greater context in which Google exists as well as the product they have put forward accentuate that behavior. Not all folks need or want to play the game that way. There are other choices, not always easy ones, not always fun ones but they do exist.

I think Google does see the impact that self interest has on their product and as pointed out above, is working to clean up the index with an engineering solution…not very satisfying to those of us that have closely followed spam over the past two years but but they are acting. In fact I heard from Laural (BellaStella) that things were dramatically improved from her point of view.

Craig’s point about math vs. elbow grease is beautifully summarized. That’s just what they are doing.

In answer to Mike’s 2nd question:

It would appear you can’t run Local at an algo’s distance if you want to have a real-time index. Google’s algo shows what has been historically deemed relevant to users’ queries. Local isn’t history. It’s what’s happening today.

No one ever helps ANYWHERE. It is a real bummer and I know I can’t be the only one. Carter, can you please help us?!

@ Earl

I must say that even if the spam will be at the level it’s now, they’ll get some money from me. I’ll fight it & win it! But I’ll sure not excommunicate to use Google Maps. The world is not pink & to some things it’s taking a lot of time to reach a basic level of perfection or gap closing, that’s life..
I’m defiantly not defending Google. I’m one of many that got severely heart from the mess in their maps, so don’t get me wrong.

I can share with you this general info- many authorities are starting to react very seriously to the spam on the internet. I’m guessing that after a new sets of state or even federal laws will be published, Google, if they want it or not, will need to do a great clean up & act according to that (exactly as their customers will need to firstly do). Many spamy companies will be ‚“vanished“ from the Maps.
It’s sounds ‚pink‘ but I can tell you that things are already started to move.

So the great echo of this spam, will become the ‘main voice’ of what will happen. This could not be happened if Google was not so big & dominant, I think.

(((FINGERS CROSSED!!!!)))

I agree with you about their approach. The question for me are two fold:

1)Is the local data with the algo any better or worse than that created the infoUSA way?

2)Can you really run local at an algo’s distance?

Mike

@Earl
re If I was a buyer and couldn’t get simple customer service from Google…do you think I’d buy into their paid technology…such as Android or anything else they want to hawk.

The answer is some will and some won’t. Would you drop your Adwords if they were working even if they did screw you in Maps?

@MikeOK

It is hard for folks to understand and take to heart what you have just said.

I think the problem boils down to the way Google structures its local data. When everything runs on algo’s, customer service is very hard to achieve.
When I call, email etc for service, I expect an immediate or nearly immediate resolve to my issue. It seems Google is incapable of providing that specific customer support.
If it was a question of money, they could outsource 1-900 numbers to a third party for support. Heck, this might even become another revenue stream for them. But I suspect that it’s not the money holding back customer service.
Closer to the truth would be what you describe in a post about just collecting the map group posts and tweaking the algo from there.

The lack of customer service in local/maps is Google’s achillies heel. The bulk of available or waiting online revenue resides in SMB’s. Something they seem to understand with the announced IBM tech partnership targeting SMB’s. If they cannot solve this problem, someone else will.