I work at Duke Health in Durham, NC. This organization includes many hospitals, clinics, and other entities.
In Google maps, a search for "Duke Medical Center" returns two different entries in the top 10 results, neither of which is correct. They both have the wrong phone numbers. These numbers lead to particular doctor's offices, and they are being swamped with calls from people trying to reach the main medical center.
I cannot stress how unacceptable this situation is. I've contacted support at Google (that contact form has since been removed), and was advised to use the "Google Local Business Center" to manage locations. So I managed to correct a particular entry for Duke Medical Center, but other wrong ones still remain.
You can't possibly expect us to track down all of these invalid locations, and try to obtain the mailed postcards to get them removed or corrected. Some of the addresses are wrong and we wouldn't even get the cards!
And why do some locations show a listing of multiple phone numbers? See this search result to see an item that returns no less than FIVE phone numbers at once, all of which are wrong.
Right now, the only solution I see is to block Google crawlers from indexing any sites, as it currently seems that any phone number found on any site may show up for any random result in Google maps.
-----Original Message----- From: Google-Maps-For-Business-Owners@googlegroups.com [mailto:Google-Maps-For-Business-Owners@googlegroups.com]On Behalf Of bart Sent: Wednesday, February 21, 2007 11:50 AM To: Google Maps Help Group - Google Maps For Business Owners Subject: Search results are so wrong it's worse than useless
I work at Duke Health in Durham, NC. This organization includes many hospitals, clinics, and other entities.
In Google maps, a search for "Duke Medical Center" returns two different entries in the top 10 results, neither of which is correct. They both have the wrong phone numbers. These numbers lead to particular doctor's offices, and they are being swamped with calls from people trying to reach the main medical center.
I cannot stress how unacceptable this situation is. I've contacted support at Google (that contact form has since been removed), and was advised to use the "Google Local Business Center" to manage locations. So I managed to correct a particular entry for Duke Medical Center, but other wrong ones still remain.
You can't possibly expect us to track down all of these invalid locations, and try to obtain the mailed postcards to get them removed or corrected. Some of the addresses are wrong and we wouldn't even get the cards!
And why do some locations show a listing of multiple phone numbers? See this search result to see an item that returns no less than FIVE phone numbers at once, all of which are wrong.
Right now, the only solution I see is to block Google crawlers from indexing any sites, as it currently seems that any phone number found on any site may show up for any random result in Google maps.
I just wanted to followup with you on this and assure you that I haven't forgotten about you. I've passed all the necessary details on to our engineers and can assure you that we are actively working on the issue that you've reported.
Thanks again for your patience and the patience of your doctors. Jen
> I work at Duke Health in Durham, NC. This organization includes many > hospitals, clinics, and other entities.
> In Google maps, a search for "Duke Medical Center" returns two > different entries in the top 10 results, neither of which is correct. > They both have the wrong phone numbers. These numbers lead to > particular doctor's offices, and they are being swamped with calls > from people trying to reach the main medical center.
> I cannot stress how unacceptable this situation is. I've contacted > support at Google (that contact form has since been removed), and was > advised to use the "Google Local Business Center" to manage > locations. So I managed to correct a particular entry for Duke > Medical Center, but other wrong ones still remain.
> You can't possibly expect us to track down all of these invalid > locations, and try to obtain the mailed postcards to get them removed > or corrected. Some of the addresses are wrong and we wouldn't even > get the cards!
> And why do some locations show a listing of multiple phone numbers? > See this search result to see an item that returns no less than FIVE > phone numbers at once, all of which are wrong.
> Right now, the only solution I see is to block Google crawlers from > indexing any sites, as it currently seems that any phone number found > on any site may show up for any random result in Google maps.
> I work at Duke Health in Durham, NC. This organization includes many > hospitals, clinics, and other entities.
> In Google maps, a search for "Duke Medical Center" returns two > different entries in the top 10 results, neither of which is correct. > They both have the wrong phone numbers. These numbers lead to > particular doctor's offices, and they are being swamped with calls > from people trying to reach the main medical center.
> I cannot stress how unacceptable this situation is. I've contacted > support at Google (that contact form has since been removed), and was > advised to use the "Google Local Business Center" to manage > locations. So I managed to correct a particular entry for Duke > Medical Center, but other wrong ones still remain.
> You can't possibly expect us to track down all of these invalid > locations, and try to obtain the mailed postcards to get them removed > or corrected. Some of the addresses are wrong and we wouldn't even > get the cards!
> And why do some locations show a listing of multiple phone numbers? > See this search result to see an item that returns no less than FIVE > phone numbers at once, all of which are wrong.
> Right now, the only solution I see is to block Google crawlers from > indexing any sites, as it currently seems that any phone number found > on any site may show up for any random result in Google maps.
I have the same exact problem. I am the web director for NYU Medical Center.
I have the correct address and phone number listed in over 20,000 pages on the footer.
Google maps does not have an elegant mechanism for validating changes. With large institutions, mail stops can be very difficult so the post card method does not work. Also, our call center is analog, so they can not validate there. How about a validation tag on our web site? that would seem to be the most logical.
This has become a serious problem for us, as we have patients literally showing up in the wrong locations when they are scheduled for surgery.
I have sent several emails to the maps group, to no avail.
Bart, if you find a solution i would love to hear it. I would love to know where the mapbot is getting its data from. An XML document on the root of my server listing the correct addresses and numbers would make the most sense to me.
Michael
On Feb 28, 12:41 pm, "bart" <bart.hubb...@duke.edu> wrote:
> On Feb 21, 11:50 am, "bart" <bart.hubb...@duke.edu> wrote:
> > I work at Duke Health in Durham, NC. This organization includes many > > hospitals, clinics, and other entities.
> > In Google maps, a search for "Duke Medical Center" returns two > > different entries in the top 10 results, neither of which is correct. > > They both have the wrong phone numbers. These numbers lead to > > particular doctor's offices, and they are being swamped with calls > > from people trying to reach the main medical center.
> > I cannot stress how unacceptable this situation is. I've contacted > > support at Google (that contact form has since been removed), and was > > advised to use the "Google Local Business Center" to manage > > locations. So I managed to correct a particular entry for Duke > > Medical Center, but other wrong ones still remain.
> > You can't possibly expect us to track down all of these invalid > > locations, and try to obtain the mailed postcards to get them removed > > or corrected. Some of the addresses are wrong and we wouldn't even > > get the cards!
> > And why do some locations show a listing of multiple phone numbers? > > See this search result to see an item that returns no less than FIVE > > phone numbers at once, all of which are wrong.
> > Right now, the only solution I see is to block Google crawlers from > > indexing any sites, as it currently seems that any phone number found > > on any site may show up for any random result in Google maps.
