Google has the power to shut down my business if I express the wrong opinions on social media sites like HN.
I work for a small local business. We've been struggling to get rid of the "lead generation" spam from the Google Maps listings. This is costing us on the order of thousands to tens-of-thousands a month in work. (That's significant for our business, on the ~10-15% of monthly revenue.)
I dug into these listings. I discovered the company behind them, a marketing firm in Hawaii. I uncovered a network of 80+ listings across the US they operate. I even discovered their recruiting websites where they pay people to create the listings for them and go on to pay people for 5-star reviews.
I provided all of this information to Google via their "business redressal form." Nothing. It's been months. I keep reporting the listings. Nothing.
We're losing work. Other local contractors are losing work. And Google twiddles its thumbs.
What good is it for Google to have a policy if they're not going to uphold it when their inaction is harming others?
You don't go to Google if you want a Google problem fixed. You go to social media and yell about it.
I doubt it would take very long before they realized they can't fill any contracts and give up. And plus wouldn't it sound super cool to say you started a guild?
The company which is causing us issues is also using the "rank and rent" scheme. They're running listings for everything from pool resurfacing to concrete driveways to tree services.
The company recruits people via Craigslist with an offer to pay them $50-100 to setup a Google Business Profile and receive the post card with a code for verification. They also offer $20 for a 5-star review.[2]
I am thinking about going to the FTC and the media at this point. I've also discovered that there's a small community but poorly connected that goes after this type of spam.
0. https://searchengineland.com/googles-locksmith-spam-problem-...
1. https://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-lawsuit-rank-and-...
> We've been struggling to get rid of the "lead generation" spam from the Google Maps listings
How we square this circle without removing the 1st amendment right of free association isn't clear though. Maybe a cutoff of "if you have more than 50 employees" or something.