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A comment on Google Maps is filled with false business addresses pretending to be nearby.

Re:Google Maps is filled with false business addresses prete... by lifeisstillgood on Thursday June 20, 2019 @07:13PM (#20238369)
This seems like one of those problems that can be solved realtively easily with crowd-sourcing. A kind of "verified purchase' but in real life. Open your Google Maps app while standing in the law firm's offices - and click 'yes I can see them' Maybe a photo.

Tie it perhaps to a UUID sent to the business owner (similar to adding a UUID to your DNS TXT record)

And even the reverse is possible, I could vouch that there is no law firm at this location - if I owned the building I probably would want to ensure that it only had registered businesses there.

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Re:Google Maps is filled with false business addresses prete... by jdm2212 on Thursday June 20, 2019 @07:18PM (#20238412)
The Maps mobile app has had this for at least 3 years -- they ask you questions about places you know. You can also suggest edits on Google Maps which are sent to others for review But not that many people use either feature.
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Re:Google Maps is filled with false business addresses prete... by zo1 on Friday June 21, 2019 @04:40AM (#20240899)
Even further back than 3 years. They previously used to even allow you to edit the underlying map, business and road data in a nifty UI kind of what OSM does now. That was a good 5 years ago I think. But they deprecated it and I guess replaced it with local-guides which is much more restricted and "gamified".
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Re:Google Maps is filled with false business addresses prete... by ballenf on Friday June 21, 2019 @12:39AM (#20239920)
I was a local guide until the Maps API price increase screwed over my use case. Somehow that killed my motivation.
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Re:Google Maps is filled with false business addresses prete... by zip1 on Thursday June 20, 2019 @07:33PM (#20238522)
In the Google Maps app there is a button that lets you confirm/check-in your visit at a business. Also, you can confirm visits in the Timeline feature.

I don't know why those features are there or what Google is using the information for, but it seems like it could be used to verify businesses by crowd-sourcing.

[ Parent | on HN ]