Re:Google Will Eat Itself (2005)
by Cthulhu_ on Monday June 13, 2022 @06:22AM
(#31723378)
I could imagine a scheme where companies can pay to promote themselves and end up higher or more prominent in business searches. Maps is how I usually search for e.g. plumbers.
[ Parent
| on HN ]
> "Maps is how I usually search for e.g. plumbers."
I used to search for tradespeople in this way, but then I realised there's a big industry of while-labelled SEO-friendly companies which register 100s or 1000s of names like "<location> plumber" or "<location> roofer" each with a pin on the map at <location>. When you contact them you go to a call centre 100s or 1000s of miles away who know nothing about your area, they outsource the actual work to gig workers, and when they start getting negative reviews that instance just disappears.
Re:Google Will Eat Itself (2005)
by benhurmarcel on Monday June 13, 2022 @09:23AM
(#31725202)
That's already how it works.
Advertised businesses in Maps appear at a higher zoom level with a square icon, and up higher in results. An example in Paris: https://i.postimg.cc/26dGZCkX/09169-E16-6-CFB-44-BA-9189-693...
Are you sure that's from advertising?
I'd be flabbergasted if this isn't already how this works.