Comments on: Google Places Updates Guidelines Updates on PO Box Policy

By: Mike Blumenthal

Mike Blumenthal — Fri, 25 May 2012 21:10:05 +0000

@Miriam

(I am playing the devils advocate here) If you had 10 spam calls for every good one and had an alternative for the good ones to get thru would you use it?

I think that is Google’s logic… Unfortunately the pathway to the solution for the good ones is still too hidden and obtuse…. they have to make it to the forum and then to the help pages and then email a solution…

Unfortunately Google goes for scale and lowest costs. That’s what you are seeing here.

By: MiriamEllis

MiriamEllis — Fri, 25 May 2012 20:54:44 +0000

I’m sure you’re right, Mike, but I get a lot of spam phone calls every day. I don’t disconnect my telephone because that would prevent me from communicating with the real businesses that phone me. Google’s stance disconnects the telephone for these legit, no-mail-delivery businesses.

By: Mike Blumenthal

Mike Blumenthal — Fri, 25 May 2012 20:47:51 +0000

@Miriam
I guess (and it is just a guess) that the number of businesses needing legitimate PO Box approval were significantly less than the rotten apples abusing PO Box approvals. Google is data driven after all.

@Dana

Google has been cracking down on virtual offices. Their efforts have not been as systematic nor as thorough but I have seen a relatively large number of them banned over the past few months.

By: MiriamEllis

MiriamEllis — Fri, 25 May 2012 20:43:03 +0000

Mike, thanks so much for highlighting this update. I think it’s a shame if this is Google’s ‘solution’ for spamming. For those parts of the country where direct mail is not delivered, this appears to be a total loss. Policies should not be written to circumvent rotten apples; they should be created to assist legitimate businesses.

By: Dana L Wooley

Dana L Wooley — Fri, 25 May 2012 01:17:18 +0000

And what will Google do about virtual offices where the business does not physically exist? They are, in effect, just more expensive UPS boxes. Or those who might use their brother-in-law’s business address?

Google should not be in the realm of determining what constitutes a legitimate business or business practice. Instead of only punishing offenders who clearly spam the listings, they also punish those of us who operate home based businesses that do not want to list under a home address (or trust Google to mask it), but want to use ONE street address not residential.

A street level view of a house for even the most reputable business may well turn customers away.

My business LLC (for which I file sales tax and other state tax returns) is registered with the state – at my UPS box address.

By: Dave

Dave — Thu, 24 May 2012 15:46:51 +0000

Mike:

I can’t help but think that the serious serial spammers are in part a cause for the evolution of the PO box TOS. Your review of the 29Prime Case, and analysis of how they tied the PO address to their location in establishing their URL highlighted how deliberate that business was in creating an original address off of a PO box.

It creates a problem and annoyance for small businesses and rural businesses that have genuine reasons for establishing PO box addresses.

As Andy suggested the complex issues with Google Places, and what I suspect are serious issues created by spammers is somehow forcing google to put more resources into Places to get it closer to “correct”

I still hope they put more personnel into effecting “hand fixes” or what Vanessa described in one comment as a “point fix”

That would expedite cleaning up problems for a lot of smbs.

By: Andy Kuiper

Andy Kuiper — Thu, 24 May 2012 12:43:44 +0000

I understand, and agree, about the need to do this… however there are legitimate rural businesses that are forced to receive mail from a PO box. Horse breeders, dog kennels, race tracks, etc. Will verification be a prolonged hassle? Please assist these types of businesses too Google —> I hope the Places Support Team can handle this extra work

Thanks for the heads up Mike, as well as the process to deal with it