Amazon Says No To Search Ads From Affiliates | Main | More Google AdSense Reporting Issues

April 7, 2009

Google Putting Battered Women At Harm?

A Google Maps Help forum thread has a post from Steve Thornton, the IT administrator at Solid Ground, an organization that does a lot of good. In short, Steve posted his extreme displeasure with how Google Maps is listing a shelter of theirs and it can lead to extreme issues for battered and abused woman, amongst others.

Let me quote Steve:

Angry husbands and boyfriends know where this place is now, and they come around and threaten staff and residents. This makes me so angry I'm spitting blood. Women and staff at other shelters around the country have been MURDERED. REMOVE OUR LISTING NOW!

He is a tech savvy individual, he knows how Google Maps works and he testified that he went through the steps to removed the listing in Google Maps. But after two tries, the listing is still there and he is fed up, frustrated and scared.

So far, Google has not replied to this thread.

Forum discussion at Google Maps Help.



Like The Story? Vote For It On Yahoo Buzz! Or On Sphinn!

posted rustybrick in Other Google Topics at April 7, 2009 8:02 AM Comments (4)

Sphinn sphinn-favicon.png • Tweet This! Twitter-16x16.png • Digg digg-favicon.jpg • Delicious delicious-favicon.png • StumbleUpon delicious-favicon.png • Google Co-op google-favicon-16.png Cartoon Barry Says Socialize

Comments

This is ridiculous. If they don't want to be found, why have they got the address in the contact page of their site, can't care too much about the women and staff in the shelters

 

Posted by colin at April 7, 2009 10:21

Colin, these organizations have an administrative address that is separate from the individual shelters. The address on their contact page is not the address of the shelter. If you notice, they list a P.O. Box for the shelter.

 

Posted by Christina Gleason at April 7, 2009 13:33

Google's response:
Steve - it looks like there were duplicates at the address you're trying to remove. You were on the right track and successfully removed one of two duplicate listings appearing. For the second listing, it looks like you hadn't received the PIN yet. I went ahead and automatically verified with PIN the second listing appearing in your Local Business Center account. It should be disappear from Maps search results soon.

I'm sorry for the inconvenience.

From Joel H. at Google

 

Posted by Kandi Humpf at April 7, 2009 13:36

Glad Google took care of this now. :)

 

Posted by Barry Schwartz at April 7, 2009 13:49

Post a comment (Note: Can Take 120 Seconds For Your Comment To Show Up)

Do you want us to save your personal Information?

Premium Sponsors + advertise

To subscribe to the Search Engine Roundtable, click here