Wow:

That smells of criminality. I’d have an attorney look into it. On the other hand it opens a wide door for further such actions.

Google better clamp down on this ASAP!!!

“All were totally unaware that it had been necessary for them to claim their listings.”

And that makes clear the reason for you (and any of us) to keep blogging about this stuff, Mike. The fact that this could happen to people who don’t even understand that their information is in Google’s index and that they’ve got to go claim it makes Google somewhat party to the damages the florists have suffered, it seems to me. Because the business owners are unaware of what is going on, it’s as though circumstances beyond their control are now exerting massive influence over their survival. If Google has no plan for effectively letting SMBs know that their data has been indexed and is subject to sabotage, I guess that leaves it up to Mike to tell the world, as best he can.

There’s something very weird about that, isn’t there?

Thanks for reporting on this.
Miriam

@Mike

sue the 800-folks sounds a bit strange to me, because it was their affiliates, that were using their affiliate program doing the map spam, not themselves. They guys doing the map spam receive the commissions per lead or even per click. As from what I could tell from one of the comments of the 800 people (on the florist blog where jen also responded) they weren’t aware of this, stopped all the affiliate programs with those users and now their reputation ends up being damaged.

Although I do think the 800-florist should somehow disclose who did it so necessary actions can be taken. But my guess is that this will all be too complicated.

I am with Miram on this, and maybe a step further. Google has taken it upon themselves to start listing businesses, without any fact checking, then claim to be the place or are the place that people gravitate towards for their search information, I know I keep beating this horse, but the UA/Tribune/Google mess from erogenous news posted by Google as current caused a MAJOR loss to the shocking tune of $1 billion!!! Google allowing hijacking of business listings is the same accountability issue. I think oversight is going to be needed. How long does the 800 lb gorilla get to run free, shouting it’s all for the user experience when in reality the user has been duped.

I am growing tired and weary of Google, I am close to tossing my gmail, and use of Google search out (except for client required work) and using the alternative, Yahoo/MSN together.

Accountability, it’s what you do when you are an adult, so time for Google to grow-up…

As someone who is tightly knit with this issue in reviewing how this was done, if there is any wrongdoing for civil action, firstly, I would suggest that those companies who broker and support the affiliate systems, such as Neverblue, Commission Junction (CJ.com), Linkshare and others would be it. For one, affiliate marketing is built through programs by CJ.com and others, and often not the site itself. There was confirmation from one of the florists’ who spoke with 800 that they had a CJ.com campaign. There wasn’t enough QA by CJ.com in this case. Secondly, Google needs to take responsibility for this and clean it up, QUICKLY. Their (in)action so far in many cases shows that it’s not as nimble to fix an issue, even after repeated steps to correct it and bring it to their attention.

Mike,

Once again, thank you for your great advice and for your coverage of this hijacking issue.

You said:
“My thinking on the 800 folks is not that their behavior is necessarily criminal but that they should return to the florists any ill-gotten gains that they have received from this project. ”

I suggested both affiliate resellers donate the proceeds from the hijacks to the non-profit Flowers For Kids project which helps educate elementary school students about flowers. There’s been no response.

Once aware of the hijacks, there’s no reason why the resellers couldn’t have put up error pages to stop consumers from ordering via the redirects.

Whether cut off from commissions or not, those redirected affiliate links were still working last night. One was through CJ but the other was self-administered by the reseller. (Today the redirecting pages, ConveninetFlowers.com and Convenietflowers.com/sales, are both displaying security certificate warnings for me.)

Glancing at the user logs of the spammers, it’s clear hijackings are happening to many different types of companies, and not just to SMB. I spotted affiliate replacements for a local Pier 1 and a CitiBank branch. Seems any company whose business type includes affiliates (even tangentially) is a target.

It will be interesting to see what Google does with the sock puppet user IDs. They clearly leave a trail of destroyed local listings. Once can only hope the other businesses get reverted, too and that the user IDs are banned and the phony reviews deleted.

As flawed as G’s community edit filters are/were, the Local world gets far better exposure today than it did before Local/Maps and the Three/Ten Boxes.

I’m seeing many more florists’ listings repaired today – and that’s the swiftest response I can ever recall. Let’s hope it’s a pattern and not the exception.

Cathy

I just wanted to throw out a huge and most grafteful ” Thank You” to Mike for putting this issue at the forefront of his blog. When this information was brought to our attention a great many folks reached out to us like JB and Cathy.

I am not sure how or when Google will get the 10 pack listing resolved but we hope it will not take 4-6 weeks as it is truly affecting our business. It is our goal to bring those involved in these hijackings against legitimate operators to be brought to justice!

Please let us know if you hear anything new and again -thank you!

Marc

Allmost all of my 10 box listings was hijacked by another locksmith.
Haw can he do that?
Claiming a listing can be done eather by mail or phone.
He have to change the phone in order to claim my listing. From my epirience you cant change a phone with out verify it by phone first and entering the code.

I reported it to Google and it looks like they “cleaned” some of this locksmiths listings.