Nice comments and update Mike. What it doesn’t do, though is correct listings from old directories representing old businesses that are not in existance.

In certain cases, G Maps is listing a bunch of businesses (off of directories) that are not operating. There is no current way to remove those listings.

G is populating G maps and inserting this into G serps with some amazingly old and outdated information that is very confusing and misleading to users.

Dave

Earl
It might be that you are not yet seeing the correction url…wait 24 hours and let me know if you still can’t see it

Mike

Mike: While scanning businesses for my location and industry I found one example of an unverfied listing. The business is not in existance. So I processed this through the G methodology.

I’m skeptical how they are doing this. I know that at least five businesses in my category in G maps in my industry and location have not been in business for 7 years or longer with 4 of them having not been in business for 9 years.

How is G identifying these businesses and then highlighting them in G maps. How is it identifying one as unverfied data and then 5 others as being verified? Who verified these listings? They haven’t been in business for years. How is it that one business showed up as “unverified” when others don’t.

Having followed local rankings for several years I’d suggest that G maps insertions into organic results is moving Google backwards.

Pre February 2005, Organic Google had very poor logic for searches for local businesses. They briliantly corrected this in February 2005 and small businesses across the country were being found for logical searches via inclusion of address and/or phone number information within their websites. These websites supplanted crazy rankings that had amazon, ebay, and other inappropriate sites showing for a query such as …..plumber springfield, missouri. It was a dramatic and successful improvement in search logic.

Now Google is going backwards by including incorrect and invalid data from a myriad of old sources. The data is currently largely impervious to cleaning.

With the failure rate for small businesses being rather large Google has to be providing numerous examples of businesses that aren’t operating. These examples are now supplanting the visibility of existing businesses, some of whom are spending dramatic amounts of money on their websites and current efforts to be seen by the public.

I hope Google moves more rapidly to change this situation.

Dave

I was pleased to see them add unverified listings, because it seems to be the only way I can get our business listed. I verified our business’s listing in early January, and it shows up that way within my google account. I know it is supposed to take about 6 weeks, but we are well past that and still not showing up. I’m wondering if I have fallen victim to a glitch in the system, and I don’t know how to find out. We were actually sent two different verification codes in the mail. I used one, and we showed up verified. I’m wondering if there is an issue because we were sent two different verification codes. I’d like to understand why we aren’t showing up, particularly because we are the only business in our zip code practicing exclusively our area of law, and have it in the name of our business.

I was looking at a map of the Queen charlotte Islands Canada, where I grew up, and noticed Google has a bunch of ferries going to a tidal mud flat where we used tio dig clams! The ferry landing is actually about eight miles northeast near Skidegate. Because this is not a business but part of the Highway, it cannot be reported!

Wrong spot:
http://maps.google.ca/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=53.968709,-132.623777&ie=UTF8&s=&ll=53.239588,-132.161579&spn=0.024553,0.086174&t=h&z=14

If you look to the top right of this map, you’ll see the ferry berths!

(and the incorrect ferry route passing well below)

http://maps.google.ca/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=53.968709,-132.623777&ie=UTF8&s=&t=h&ll=53.241566,-132.006011&spn=0.012661,0.022573&z=15&iwloc=addr

Incredible error, since the other road is an active logging road, that also leads to some of the worlds best fishing grounds. And perhaps an encounter with a 14′ wide truck.