Google on Tuesday said it will change the labeling options on its Places pages so that users cannot incorrectly label a store or restaurant as permanently closed when they are in fact open.
"About two weeks ago, news in the blogosphere made us aware that abuse—such as 'place closed' spam labels—was occurring," Ethan Russell, a Google senior product manager, wrote in a blog post. "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."
Russell did not elaborate on what those changes might entail, but his post was spurred by a story in the New York Times that profiled several businesses that had their Google Places page incorrectly labeled as "permanently closed."
Jason Rule, owner of the Coffee Rules Lounge in Kansas, for example, said his shop would display as "closed" to any smartphone user searching for nearby coffee shops. "We're not far from Interstate 70, and I have no doubt that a lot of people running up and down that highway just skipped us," he told the Times.
With Places, Google allows the community to make edits since Google "can't be on the ground in every city and town," Russell wrote. Typically, when a place is reported as closed, Google will display a label that says, "Reported to be closed. Not true?" Once Google reviews that report, it is replaced with, "This place is permanently closed. Not true?" While the "vast majority of edits people have made to business listings have improved the quality and accuracy of Google Maps for the benefit of all Maps users," there are some bad actors, he said.
"We apologize to both business owners and users for any frustration this recent issue of spam labeling has caused, and we're committed to making sure that users and potential customers continue to have the most up-to-date and accurate information possible," Russell wrote.
In July, Google updated Places to make it easier to access information, upload pictures, and see reviews. Not everyone was pleased with Places, however, particularly rival review sites. As a result, Google removed "review snippets from other web sources" like Yelp from Places.
"Rating and review counts reflect only those that've been written by fellow Google users, and as part of our continued commitment to helping you find what you want on the web, we're continuing to provide links to other review sites so you can get a comprehensive view of locations across the globe," Google said in a blog post.