A few days ago, Deebo had an example of Israel haters ‘gaming’ Google search results. Now we have an example of them doing it with Google Maps.
Israellycool friend and occasional guest poster Rachel Steinmetz was trying to find out how far her great great grandfather’s home was from her cousins nursery, in the old Jerusalem neighborhood of Yemin Moshe (yup, her family goes back a long way in Israel). So she typed in ‘Yemin Moshe Jerusalem Israel’ and this is what she saw:
Screenshot in case removed (click to enlarge):
Needless to say, there is no ‘Free Palastine’ cafe in the heart of the Jewish neighborhood of Yemin Moshe. Some anti-Israel person clearly added it there.
Which begs the question. How did Google allow this?
It seems Google Maps does allow users to add businesses. There is an ability to later claim and verify a business, but the location seems to appear even before this step. The question is: is there not a review process?
I had another friend of mine test it out.
As of the time of this post, the non-existent Ken’s Kosher Koffee does not appear on Google Maps because it is subject to a review. Which means there is such a review process – and the Free Palastine cafe passed it!
What is not clear is how. Does Google base the review on the “standing” of the Google user, without performing any other checks? Or is this an example of an anti-Israel Google employee? Either way, it has led to this ridiculous situation.
The good news is there is way to redress this. If you see such fake places, you can report them to Google as follows:
After doing this, Google should remove them.
Besides highlighting a problem with Google crowdsourcing, this latest instance reaffirms something else. Do you notice how it is invariably the Israel haters doing this? I suspect they know the truth is not on their side, so they have to resort to such subterfuge.
Update: The non-existent Ken’s Kosher Koffee was also approved. So Google just do not properly check the submissions.
