How Google Map Hackers Can Destroy a Business at Will • Hacker News Board

Re: How Google Map Hackers Can Destroy a Business at Will

#41

Post by drzaiusapelord » Mon, Jul 07, 2014, 3:41 PM UTC

Semaphor wrote: post #28

The yelp review paint a picture of 2010: Great food, great service 2011: Good to great food, horrible service 2012: Horrible food, horrible service I usually don't trust yelp, but the decline is way too visible here.

What exactly is yelp telling you? I'm something of a foodie and am stunned at how inaccurate the reviews are for most restaurants. Most of the reviews seem to come from a minority "elite" users who are chronic whiners and come off as terribly immature. Its just incredible what people ding establishments for. "Fries came late, this place sucks! Zero stars!"

Some people think the issue with yelp and google reviews is trust. Its not. Its entitlement and a lack of proper criteria. The types of people who gravitate towards these reviews and become frequent reviewers are often people with poor taste and a lack of understanding of what they are reviewing. They're not crowd-sourced Robger Eberts. They're your cranky local paper's film critic who thinks 'naughty language' is the most unforgivable sin.

If anything, services like yelp have made me appreciate the art of criticism and a lot of my dining decisions are now done via professional critics with good reputations instead of the usual gang of misanthropes and weirdos who dominate yelp.

Re: How Google Map Hackers Can Destroy a Business at Will

#42

Post by nicolethenerd » Mon, Jul 07, 2014, 3:46 PM UTC

In case any of you have a business w/ a physical location, yext.com sells a service that lets you manage these details (business hours, location, phone #, etc) across several different sites (Bing, Mapquest, Yahoo, etc + ~50 others), rather than handling them all individually.

(Disclaimer: my partner works there - but I don't get a commission or anything :-) Just seemed relevant to the discussion)

Re: How Google Map Hackers Can Destroy a Business at Will

#43

Post by hughdbrown » Mon, Jul 07, 2014, 3:47 PM UTC

[deleted] wrote: post #36

will_brown wrote: post #33

It would seem to me these types of hacks are very risky in light of the recent lawsuits involving bogus Yelp reviews. Specifically, Yelp was forced by the courts to reveal the real identities behind bogus reviews, and further individuals have been held personally liable for defamation. Though the Google Map hacks may not fall under a cause of action for defamation (thought it may), certainly I could see rather large…

[deleted]

How does the First Amendment apply to Yelp reviewers? Is Congress making laws that abridge the rights of free speech in Yelp reviews?

On a separate point, I think the percentage of customers a corrupt business owner could defraud is pretty low. Happy customers may post reviews, but defrauded customers will go after a business like angry hornets. A small number of frauds will become a disproportionate number of negative reviews.

Re: How Google Map Hackers Can Destroy a Business at Will

#44

Post by VikingCoder » Mon, Jul 07, 2014, 3:49 PM UTC

benihana wrote: post #17

VikingCoder wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The business owner needs to care what their online presence (including their Google Places) looks like. There is nothing Google or anyone else can do, if the business doesn't care. When the business does care, there are lots of options to clean up their online presence.

Did you read the article? This isn't a case of the owner not caring; he didn't know that google maps was incorrectly reporting his hours. It took a phone call from a customer. And that's the problem - why would he ever think that people weren't coming to his restaurant because a map service messed up his hours? As is clear from this article, that was very low on his checklist of things that might be killing my busine…

Yes, I did read the article, and my comment stands.

It is absolutely a case of the business owner not caring. It's completely understandable to not care about something that you don't know about. But if you do care about it, then you will learn about it.

As a business owner, you need to care and know how your customers find you. Be it Bing Maps, Google Maps, the phone book, etc. And you need to care that your information is correct in those places, and that means you need to know about them. Or have someone act on your behalf who can check them for you.

Re: How Google Map Hackers Can Destroy a Business at Will

#45

Post by tedunangst » Mon, Jul 07, 2014, 3:52 PM UTC

chdir wrote: post #18

If you are running a popular place, whether you like it or not, you'll end up on Google controlled listings. Unfortunately, there's little help for a non-tech savvy business owner to fix problems with listings or fake reviews or even removal of genuine reviews. This is an area where they need to be held accountable. If you are wielding so much power, you need to handle it responsibly and error in favor of business ow…

If it's your email, can't you just send a password reset?

Re: How Google Map Hackers Can Destroy a Business at Will

#46

Post by Gracana » Mon, Jul 07, 2014, 3:53 PM UTC

nicolethenerd wrote: post #42

In case any of you have a business w/ a physical location, yext.com sells a service that lets you manage these details (business hours, location, phone #, etc) across several different sites (Bing, Mapquest, Yahoo, etc + ~50 others), rather than handling them all individually. (Disclaimer: my partner works there - but I don't get a commission or anything :-) Just seemed relevant to the discussion)

Can yext do anything to protect you from attacks like those mentioned in the linked article?

Re: How Google Map Hackers Can Destroy a Business at Will

#47

Post by SquareWheel » Mon, Jul 07, 2014, 3:54 PM UTC

nicolethenerd wrote: post #42

In case any of you have a business w/ a physical location, yext.com sells a service that lets you manage these details (business hours, location, phone #, etc) across several different sites (Bing, Mapquest, Yahoo, etc + ~50 others), rather than handling them all individually. (Disclaimer: my partner works there - but I don't get a commission or anything :-) Just seemed relevant to the discussion)

Why the heck can't I scroll down on the results page? It keeps resetting my position when I use the scroll bar.

Re: How Google Map Hackers Can Destroy a Business at Will

#48

Post by Semaphor » Mon, Jul 07, 2014, 3:55 PM UTC

drzaiusapelord wrote: post #41

Semaphor wrote: post #28

The yelp review paint a picture of 2010: Great food, great service 2011: Good to great food, horrible service 2012: Horrible food, horrible service I usually don't trust yelp, but the decline is way too visible here.

What exactly is yelp telling you? I'm something of a foodie and am stunned at how inaccurate the reviews are for most restaurants. Most of the reviews seem to come from a minority "elite" users who are chronic whiners and come off as terribly immature. Its just incredible what people ding establishments for. "Fries came late, this place sucks! Zero stars!" Some people think the issue with yelp and google reviews is t…

This was the second time I really read through reviews on yelp. The first time I was reading reviews about a restaurant I love and reviewing it myself. And when I say I don't trust yelp, I meant the user base :)

Re: How Google Map Hackers Can Destroy a Business at Will

#49

Post by [deleted] » Mon, Jul 07, 2014, 4:00 PM UTC

Gracana wrote: post #46

nicolethenerd wrote: post #42

In case any of you have a business w/ a physical location, yext.com sells a service that lets you manage these details (business hours, location, phone #, etc) across several different sites (Bing, Mapquest, Yahoo, etc + ~50 others), rather than handling them all individually. (Disclaimer: my partner works there - but I don't get a commission or anything :-) Just seemed relevant to the discussion)

Can yext do anything to protect you from attacks like those mentioned in the linked article?

[deleted]

Re: How Google Map Hackers Can Destroy a Business at Will

#50

Post by electrum » Mon, Jul 07, 2014, 4:04 PM UTC

drzaiusapelord wrote: post #41

Semaphor wrote: post #28

The yelp review paint a picture of 2010: Great food, great service 2011: Good to great food, horrible service 2012: Horrible food, horrible service I usually don't trust yelp, but the decline is way too visible here.

What exactly is yelp telling you? I'm something of a foodie and am stunned at how inaccurate the reviews are for most restaurants. Most of the reviews seem to come from a minority "elite" users who are chronic whiners and come off as terribly immature. Its just incredible what people ding establishments for. "Fries came late, this place sucks! Zero stars!" Some people think the issue with yelp and google reviews is t…

Do you have any examples of awesome restaurants that have poor ratings on Yelp? Assuming a sufficient number of reviews, Yelp ratings are at least "directionally accurate". In my experience, a place with four stars is decent and two stars is poor.

Many Asian restaurants in the Bay Area that I like are 3 or 3.5 stars, though many others with that rating are mediocre. But on the low or high end, it seems very accurate.