<
https://pluralistic.net/2024/03/05/the-map-is-not-the-territory/#apor-locksmith>
'If you're running a business, you can either invest at being good at your
business, or good at Google SEO. Choose the former and your customers will love
you – but they won't be able to find you, thanks to the people who choose the
latter. And if you're going to invest in top-notch SEO, why bother investing in
quality at all?
For more than a decade, Google has promised that it would do something about
"lead gens" – services that spoof Google into thinking that they are local
businesses, pushing down legit firms on both regular search and Google Maps
(these downranked businesses invested in quality, not SEO, remember). Search
for a roofer, a plumber, an electrician, or a locksmith (
especially a
locksmith), and most or all of the results will be lead-gens. They'll take your
call, pretend to be a local business, and then call up some half-qualified bozo
to come out and charge you four times the going rate for substandard work:
https://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/31/business/fake-online-locksmiths-may-be-out-to-pick-your-pocket-too.html
Some of them just take your money and they "go back to the shop for a tool" and
never return:
https://www.riverfronttimes.com/news/when-a-fake-business-used-a-real-st-louis-address-things-got-weird-32087998
Google has been promising to fix this since the late aughts, and to be fair,
it's a
little better. There was once a time when a map of Manhattan showed
more locksmiths than taxis:
https://blumenthals.com/blog/2009/02/18/google-maps-proves-more-locksmiths-in-nyc-than-cabs/
But GMaps is trapped in the enshittification squeeze. On the one hand, the
company wants to provide a good and reliable map. On the other hand, the
company makes money selling "ads" that are actually payola, where a business
can pay to get to the top of the listings or get displayed on the map itself.
Zoom out of Google's map of central London and the highlighted landmarks are a
hilarious mix of "organic" and paid listings: the British Museum, Buckingham
Palace, the Barbican, the London Eye…and a random oral and maxillofacial clinic
in the financial district:
https://twitter.com/dylanbeattie/status/1764711667663831455
Hell of a job "organizing the world's information and making it universally
accessible and useful," Big G. Doubtless the average Londoner finds the
presence of this clinic
super helpful in orienting themselves relative to the
map on their phone screens, and it's a real service to tourists hoping to hit
all the major landmarks.'
Via David.
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
