Comments on: Where Is A Business Address That is Hidden Not Really Hidden? Google Places

By: Mike

Mike — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 14:25:59 +0000

@Menachem

I am with you on that but
1)The business needs to have their expectations properly set and they need to understand its proper use
and
2)Google should note in the Places Dashboard that it offers no security.

By: Menachem Pritzker

Menachem Pritzker — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 14:06:18 +0000

Yeah, I don’t think it’s meant as a security feature, more as a nuisance prevention measure, like if a plumber doesn’t want his address showing up. In that case, this still does a pretty good job of preventing the address from being shown as a retail location

By: Mike

Mike — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 17:35:50 +0000

@Mary
Great question about the API…

@Jeanne
As long as they make the decision for customer centric reasons it makes sense and they understand the limitations… but privacy either within or outside of Google is a non starter for a reason

By: Jeanne Kardell

Jeanne Kardell — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 17:17:32 +0000

I am so glad you wrote this post. I always advise my home based clients of the pros and cons of showing your address. This is useful information to show them. Thanks!

By: Mary Bowling

Mary Bowling — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 17:07:54 +0000

In addition to some of that info surfacing, how does Google treat hidden addresses it in their Maps API?
Also, it can be pretty hard to get listed in other places and to build good citations and drive traffic if you don’t want to share your address.
Mary

By: Mike

Mike — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 16:17:47 +0000

@Shawn
In the past a general search would surface the listing as a pin dot although that particular leakage has been fixed. So it is not a huge leak but ….many I just don’t want folks thinking that it is really secure. The motivations to use the feature should be customer focused.

By: Shawn Hart

Shawn Hart — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 15:31:53 +0000

The fact that a person’s “hidden” information leaks so easily is certainly disconcerting, but IMO your examples are a little unfair.

In each case you are searching for the exact address of the business. This would mean that a stranger would have to know and search for your address before getting access to the “leaked” information (i.e. the address they just searched for).

Are there any examples of people doing searches for the business or related keyword where the address information seemed readily available (or even somewhat leaked)?

By: Mike

Mike — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 14:14:59 +0000

@Andrew certainly the general index can show you the data but I was referring to Google showing information that you might think was not showing.

The other route that the business location “leaks” is via the small red dots on the Map. If your hidden business is relevant to the search query but not in the top listings, it will be represented at its actual location via the little red dot on the Map.

By: Andrew Huskinson

Andrew Huskinson — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 13:47:32 +0000

What about other Web listings and maybe the scraped Maps index listings from those Web listings as well?