Google Maps Listings Marred By False Information

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Internet observers often extol the wisdom of the crowd, but appear to be less keen to consider the malice of the crowd. Thus, Google, ever optimistic about leveraging free labor to organize online information, has allowed Google users to police map data without adequately planning for the possibility of abuse.

In recent weeks, Google has been getting an earful from businesses listed on Google Maps and Google Places. Many business owners are reporting that their businesses appear to be "permanently closed," the result of presumably deliberate attempts by rivals to scare off customers.

Google Maps place markers, when clicked on, open a pop-up pane that includes a "more" link. One of the options in the "more" link drop-down menu is "Report a problem." And one of several possible problems that can be reported is "Place is permanently closed." Used correctly, this is a public service; used in error or in a deliberate attempt to mislead, it's a public nuisance and economic sabotage.

Google calls the problem "spam." F-Secure security advisor Sean Sullivan calls it "a subtle (and ingenious) 'denial of service' attack."

Google has been accepting such reports without adequate skepticism or safeguards. There's a "Not true" button that appears when a place is designated as closed, but those complaining about the problem suggest that's not enough because the virtual vandalism just continues.

"I have a business on Google Maps that someone keeps marking our business as closed, and we keep getting calls asking if we are going out of business," writes a user identified as "iloveshells" in a Google Places help forum post. "It has been happening for over a week now, and good customers keep re-marking our business as open. I own this listing in my Google Places account. I would love to find a solution to stop this and it would be great if I could get the IP address to the user that is harassing us."

Google did not immediately respond to a request to explain what disciplinary action, if any, it might take when it detects abuse. In general, the company does not provide a user's IP address without a valid court order. But Google says it plans to introduce new tools to prevent abuse.

"About two weeks ago, news in the blogosphere made us aware that abuse--such as 'place closed' spam label--was occurring," wrote Google senior product manager Ethan Russell in a blog post on Monday. "And since then, we've been working on improvements to the system to prevent any malicious or incorrect labeling. These improvements will be implemented in the coming days."

It appears, however, that the problem has been going on for more than two weeks. One post in a series of posts about the problem dates back to June, 2010. It concerns a hospital emergency room inaccurately marked closed.

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