from Hacker News

Hijacking the Verified Knowledge Panel

by yvoschaap on 5/29/20, 1:37 PM with 28 comments

  • by wodenokoto on 5/29/20, 2:09 PM

    I once helped a friend get his bar on Google Maps by claiming the business. They send a physical letter to the address of the bar.

    How do they go about claiming other people’s business? Do they just say “yeah, I own the pizza parlor on food street 3, Ohio, but send verification to startup avenue 10, Silicon Valley”?

  • by sytelus on 5/29/20, 1:56 PM

    How did they got #1 and #2 results above real website which even has shorter domain name? My guess: They bought off fake URL in various yellow pages listing which Google then aggregates to believe it is the official URL.
  • by JMTQp8lwXL on 5/29/20, 5:27 PM

    Businesses built wholly on top of another business, much less a flaw in how another business operates a tiny portion of their overall business, are doomed to fail. They are 1 policy change at Google away from losing their intake funnel -- a funnel that provides no value to anyone but Slice, but that is a separate discussion.
  • by gimmeThaBeet on 5/29/20, 2:11 PM

    I just think of Sliceline from Silicon Valley, but like a digital version of switching boxes.
  • by ausbah on 5/29/20, 2:10 PM

    wasn't there a B plot in Silicon Valley (the show) about something like this? a pizza based start up doing unethical things in the name of growth?
  • by tinco on 5/29/20, 2:06 PM

    Are they buying .com and .net tld's to host a fake website for every single business, just to outrank them on google? Is that cheaper than just paying for the ad?
  • by qppo on 5/29/20, 1:47 PM

    What do the local restaurants say? Because the problem with Grubhub was that they phished the businesses' customers - no permission or relationship with the local businesses themselves.

    My understanding of Slice is that they work directly with the pizza shops, so do they have this as a part of their agreement?

  • by ge96 on 5/29/20, 10:48 PM

    Not sure if exactly similar but I had to get a tow a while back and the first number I used on Google was not a local tow company. It was an SEO thing where they charge higher and then call the local tow company, I guess good on them but yeah idk... I suppose I did get what I wanted(a tow truck).
  • by mthoms on 5/29/20, 1:53 PM

    Surely, Google will quickly ban Slice like they do users who violate their terms.

    Just kidding. Slice has ad money to spend! They'll get a gentle slap on the wrist.

  • by anilakar on 5/29/20, 2:05 PM

    How on earth aren't these guys behind the bars yet?
  • by cameronbrown on 5/29/20, 1:48 PM