{"id":15839,"date":"2013-11-17T14:33:24","date_gmt":"2013-11-17T18:33:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blumenthals.com\/blog\/?p=15839"},"modified":"2013-11-17T20:47:03","modified_gmt":"2013-11-18T00:47:03","slug":"google-plus-dog-food-politics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blumenthals.com\/blog\/2013\/11\/17\/google-plus-dog-food-politics\/","title":{"rendered":"Google, Google Plus, Dog Food & Politics"},"content":{"rendered":"

A reader pointed out to me that Google themselves do not seem to think that local Google + Pages for Business are all that important as they have not upgraded their page to social. They in fact have not even claimed the page as of yet. Certainly no consumption of their own dog food there.<\/p>\n

He also points out that equally interesting is that the “profile photo<\/a>” was a community contributed photo\u2026a political protest photo at that, posted by Brad Johnson<\/a>. Brad is a political activist who has been critical<\/a> of Google’s climate change efforts in general and specifically critical of Google corporate moves<\/a> that support<\/a> climate change deniers.<\/p>\n

\"Screen<\/a><\/p>\n

\"1004814_10201061899023694_278170791_n\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The use of Google Maps as a platform for political commentary is not new with reports<\/a> from as far back as 2008. I have myself occasionally used these tools to make a point.<\/p>\n

Google has long relied on the power of the group as a low cost way to get things right in the world of Mapping. While there was a certain democratic populism that informed many of Google’s early decisions to open up their tools and business listings for users to edit there was also a clear economic rationale. It is interesting to observe the tension that exists between policy that allows for community edits and the needs of Google as a corporation where they have to explain to corporate advertisers why their + Page is littered with reviews from protesters.<\/p>\n

Despite the fact that I often sympathize with the messages of these protesters, I have never felt that small businesses were served by Google’s loose policies in these areas. In this case, the user simply uploaded a photo, in the absence of corporate ones, that the algo seems to think <\/a>is good. No little irony in that.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A reader pointed out to me that Google themselves do not seem to think that local Google + Pages for Business are all that important as they have not upgraded their page to social. They in fact have not even claimed the page as of yet. Certainly no consumption of their own dog food there. …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":262,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15839","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-google-plus"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t