My son<\/a> just got his progress report in school and I am proud to say that he got very good grades. It wasn’t always that way, and in fact last year he spent most of the time either on restrictions or with extra chores. He has grown up a lot over the past 6 months and I have to give him credit. It seemed as if I was going to struggle with him for his whole high school career as he “lost” one homework assignment after the next or only “remembered” to finish half of the assignment. I guess there is hope for him after all. In fact more than hope. I am incredibly proud of him.<\/p>\n I am not so sanguine about Google’s chances in fighting mapspam. But it is that time of year so I thought I would offer up a grade.<\/p>\n The recent cases of florist<\/a> and brand hijackings<\/a> were some of the most egregious examples of spam that I had seen in a while. I wanted to review Google’s record in dealing with it.<\/p>\n Some 45 or so unsuspecting floral businesses and a number of other national chain locations<\/a> had revenue diverted (stolen?) when their unclaimed listings were modified via community edits to redirect to an affiliate fulfillment house. One florist, in a large market that I spoke with, noted that his revenue was down 30% for the several weeks that he fell victim to the attack.<\/p>\n That is a large number and it had to hurt. He finally, with the help of Google,\u00a0regained control<\/a> of his listing, reappeared in the 10-Pack and all was good. Google, while not preventing the attack, did respond to his pleas in the group and elsewhere.<\/p>\n The trail of the hijackers though was quite clear. A few “community editors” did most of the dirty work<\/a> of changing the florists, car rental agencies and hotels to their benefit. Google’s community edit system<\/a>, while woefully insecure, does leave a large footprint. Without the right tools, it takes hours to ferret out the culprits, but their deeds are there for the world to see. With the right tools, it would have taken but a few minutes to track them down and delete their handiwork.<\/p>\n So in determining Google’s grade, with the help of some florists, I went back to review listings that were hijacked and determine their status. Google, for reasons only they know, has not changed many hijacked listings back to the original owners.
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\nI would encourage you to view some of the profiles of the “editors” to see how widely their net was cast and how obvious it is that they were up to no good. Here is the list of florists whose listings were hijacked and remain so 5 weeks after they were widely reported<\/a>:<\/p>\n