Comments on: Places Blackhat Playground – Reported To Be Closed http://blumenthals.com/blog/2011/08/15/places-blackhat-playground-reported-to-be-closed/ Developing Knowledge about Local Search Sat, 25 May 2013 23:22:57 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.1 By: Mike Blumenthal http://blumenthals.com/blog/2011/08/15/places-blackhat-playground-reported-to-be-closed/comment-page-1/#comment-571112 Mike Blumenthal Sat, 12 May 2012 14:49:40 +0000 http://blumenthals.com/blog/?p=10835#comment-571112 @Negar
1)Go into the dashboard and do a minor edit of the listing and resubmit
2)Go into MapMaker and report as not closed
3)Goto the Google Places Help Fix a Problem troubleshooters and report the problem to Google.

]]> By: Negar http://blumenthals.com/blog/2011/08/15/places-blackhat-playground-reported-to-be-closed/comment-page-1/#comment-571109 Negar Sat, 12 May 2012 12:55:23 +0000 http://blumenthals.com/blog/?p=10835#comment-571109 Hi,
I have a problem and I desperately need help, My Google places listing says this places is permanently closed, but it’s not true and I need it to be open, I have reported problems several times but nothing has happened, please let me know if you can help me through this.
Thanks,

]]> By: Spammed, Slammed and Shut, Desperate SMB Closes Down his Places Listing | Understanding Google Maps & Local Search http://blumenthals.com/blog/2011/08/15/places-blackhat-playground-reported-to-be-closed/comment-page-1/#comment-566874 Spammed, Slammed and Shut, Desperate SMB Closes Down his Places Listing | Understanding Google Maps & Local Search Mon, 06 Feb 2012 16:26:08 +0000 http://blumenthals.com/blog/?p=10835#comment-566874 [...] is willing to go to any lengths to gain a leg up in Google Places. You don’t just suffer a reported closing, or the rare piece of competitor review spam or the odd spam listing but you and all of your honest [...]

]]> By: Google Places Reputation Management: From G to X Rated in No Time Flat | Understanding Google Maps & Local Search http://blumenthals.com/blog/2011/08/15/places-blackhat-playground-reported-to-be-closed/comment-page-1/#comment-556957 Google Places Reputation Management: From G to X Rated in No Time Flat | Understanding Google Maps & Local Search Fri, 21 Oct 2011 13:09:16 +0000 http://blumenthals.com/blog/?p=10835#comment-556957 [...] Google Places page are necessary to prevent (or perhaps mitigate) disaster. You never know when a competitor, an ex-employee, an unethical SEO or a prankster might just deface the page. And of course you no [...]

]]> By: Google Places: What does the “new” Business Permanently Closed process look like? | Understanding Google Maps & Local Search http://blumenthals.com/blog/2011/08/15/places-blackhat-playground-reported-to-be-closed/comment-page-1/#comment-555373 Google Places: What does the “new” Business Permanently Closed process look like? | Understanding Google Maps & Local Search Wed, 28 Sep 2011 09:42:58 +0000 http://blumenthals.com/blog/?p=10835#comment-555373 [...] to the NY Times article on problems with the process for showing a business as closed that led to spammer induced closings, Google announced that they had pushed a [...]

]]> By: Google Announces Fix to Closing Report Issue | Understanding Google Maps & Local Search http://blumenthals.com/blog/2011/08/15/places-blackhat-playground-reported-to-be-closed/comment-page-1/#comment-554763 Google Announces Fix to Closing Report Issue | Understanding Google Maps & Local Search Thu, 15 Sep 2011 23:38:32 +0000 http://blumenthals.com/blog/?p=10835#comment-554763 [...]  Places Blackhat Playground – Reported To Be Closed [...]

]]> By: NY Times: Closed, Says Google, but Shops’ Signs Say Open | Understanding Google Maps & Local Search http://blumenthals.com/blog/2011/08/15/places-blackhat-playground-reported-to-be-closed/comment-page-1/#comment-554171 NY Times: Closed, Says Google, but Shops’ Signs Say Open | Understanding Google Maps & Local Search Tue, 06 Sep 2011 09:39:16 +0000 http://blumenthals.com/blog/?p=10835#comment-554171 [...] article on the recent spate of black hat closing flags that have been appearing on Places listings was published in the NY Times today by reporter David [...]

]]> By: News Flash: Google Mt View Reported Closed! | Understanding Google Maps & Local Search http://blumenthals.com/blog/2011/08/15/places-blackhat-playground-reported-to-be-closed/comment-page-1/#comment-554155 News Flash: Google Mt View Reported Closed! | Understanding Google Maps & Local Search Tue, 06 Sep 2011 02:42:41 +0000 http://blumenthals.com/blog/?p=10835#comment-554155 [...] spirit of discovery, I have once again embarked on a project to determine exactly how many “closing reports” are required to actually show a business as closed on their Places Page. The answer: Only 2 [...]

]]> By: james williford http://blumenthals.com/blog/2011/08/15/places-blackhat-playground-reported-to-be-closed/comment-page-1/#comment-553943 james williford Wed, 31 Aug 2011 01:12:39 +0000 http://blumenthals.com/blog/?p=10835#comment-553943 Ill retype my initial response, on the 15th of this month my listing was flagged closed and a separate listing was generated and flagged also as a duplicate and a bogus review with another companies name and phone number was blatantly added. Well on the 23rd my listing was reviewed after many many posting in help section and the map maker page.

That was 3 days of bliss as my business came back strong and then this morning i awake to find 34 reviews were missing. Is the review flagging something seen with the other flagging this blog is discussing?

I dropped from initially #2 before any issues to #3 when my listing came back to #9 after my reviews went missing..Well i am getting a hold of a few of my long time customers to put there reviews back up and hopefully i can regain my placement soon.
This nightmare that started on the 15th is really testing my resolve as a business owner and Buddhist. I know it will make me stronger but i gotta feed my family while getting stronger. I can say that now at 3 years in business i have suffered 5 attacks like this and im not sure there is a way to safeguard legit listings with as big as Google has gotten.
> With the limited amount of employees they have and i know there trying to build a great team now is there time to catch up? Between locksmith spam and the Chinese attacks are they too big to police every micro inch of space they own? I really hope the live section of flagging can be fixed with out the almost instant taking down of the listing then the 1-2 week review time especially for a listing as old as mine.
> I dont have all the answers, really i have very few but i would hope the ball is gotten on soon.

]]> By: james williford http://blumenthals.com/blog/2011/08/15/places-blackhat-playground-reported-to-be-closed/comment-page-1/#comment-553942 james williford Wed, 31 Aug 2011 01:00:13 +0000 http://blumenthals.com/blog/?p=10835#comment-553942 OK ill change my name to suit the blog maker, and i believe my issues with Google are specific to the title.

As of now i was able to get a few customers(3) to repost there reviews and my placement gained 2 spots with this.

Is this flagging of a closed business something anyone has been able to get Google to stand and address or the typical give us a few weeks to look at it response?

Im assuming the live ability to flag a business closed and then Google places getting around to checking it should get better as they are expanding the business places work force from what i have seen from doing a Facebook search on Google places.Lets hope some accountability is in order.

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