Google Places with Hotpot blog

Keeping Google Places Up To Date

Wednesday, December 8, 2010 | 9:50 AM

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Lots of things can change about a business — it can close, move, or change operating hours. As you rate places on Hotpot, you may notice that the business information on Google Places isn’t always completely accurate. You may even find duplicate listings for the same business. 

Many of you have asked how you can help us keep the information about a place up to date. As a local expert, you can tell us about outdated information, or even change it yourself on the Place page.

Edit details on an unverified listing


There are two ways to fix business information on Google Maps. For unverified listings, you can click the Edit Details or Edit this place links on the Place page to correct the address, homepage, location, phone number, or business categories of the place. Once you’ve made an edit, we’ll verify that it’s correct and make the change on Google Maps.



Report a problem on a verified listing

Where available, you can use the Report a Problem link to tell us about incorrect information in a verified listing, such as:


Add a place


Finally, you can also use the Report a Problem link below Maps search results to add a new place. If you search for the business on Google Maps and can’t find it, click Report a Problem at the bottom of the search results. From there, choose A place is missing from Google Maps and follow the steps to add a new place to Maps. Once the place is added, you can easily rate it on the Place page.


The place editing features are not currently available in all countries. Don’t worry, we’re working hard to make this available in more places. In the meantime, if you don’t see the Report a Problem tool in your Google Maps viewport, we encourage you to get in touch with your local data provider and request edits or updates to the information on Maps.

Thanks for helping to keep local information on Google Maps correct and up-to-date!
Posted by Cecelia Stewart, Strategist Google Places & Hotpot

16 comments:

c.compo said...

This is super helpful, thanks Cecelia!

Unknown said...

Excellent, I was just wanting to do this about 5 minutes ago. Keep up the good work!

Unknown said...

What should we do if 'Report a Problem' is grayed out?

Vanessa Schneider said...

Hey . - You've spotted a known issue, and we're working on resolving it. Thanks!

Unknown said...

When I click Report a problem I don't have the option to add a missing place.

Vanessa Schneider said...

Hey Onita --

Are you trying to Add a place via the Place page or Maps search results? Can only add a place via Maps. Go to:

http://maps.google.com/

Do a search. Scroll all the way to the bottom of the results list, and click "Report a Problem". You should see the option to 'add a missing place.' Lemme know if you have trouble!

- Vanessa, Hotpot Community Manager

Chezbloom said...

We moved our store, Chez Bloom and we now have two separate listings on Google for the same biz. Yes, I have tried hundreds of times to edit the orginal listing to reflect our new location. It never worked. So I deleted the orignal listing account. Now I can't edit our map listing with our first location. Google has our business with 2 separate address. We have tried hundreds of times to remedy this, flagged it as closed etc. But Google still lists www.chezbloom.com with the first address and customers get REALLY ANGRY when they find out we moved. They think we have not bothered to update our listing when nothing could be further from the truth. But Google will never delete our original listing. Thanks Google.

Vanessa Schneider said...

Chezbloom -- Sorry to hear about your trouble. This is happening because of a technical issue we're actively tracking and working to fix. Thanks for sending along details about it -- always helps!

Unknown said...

I have tried several times to have markers moved to where they should be in my home village of Hampsthwaite, UK. The edit history says they have been moved, and I receive emails to that effect, but symbols/icons remain incorrectly positioned. I am trying to create an interactive map for all the buildings in Hampsthwaite, where I live, and this error is becoming increasingly annoying. Is there a way I can start with a map clear of other people inaccurate markers?

Unknown said...

I also want to report a bad Postcode in UK on Google Maps but I can't find the report link on any map or page, I keep ending up in the Google help pages. I've been going round in circles for 2 hours trying to report this problem.

Vanessa Schneider said...

Hi Jason --

This Help Center article should point you in the right direction. Details under that first section, "Report incorrect map data":

http://maps.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=98014

Thanks!

James said...

Well . . . we have been trying to get this "verified" place:

http://maps.google.com/maps/place?hl=en&georestrict=input_srcid:5e198e2d1af282eb

up-to-date for awhile (including multiple problem reporting), to no avail. One culprit is the category "Criminal Justice Attorney," which we have tried to remove. In fact, it is removed in the editable version of the page, but still remains in the public version. Ditto, we have added numerous fields to the "Additional Details" section, but these appear nowhere in the public version. (When an updated version is submitted, on occasion we've received back cryptic messages regarding guidelines, but these are most unhelpful since they don't indicate the problem area. There's definitely room for improvement . . .)

Unknown said...

I changed the marker to give the correct location cause google has it a half mile off I fixed when I did my profile but i looked it up and it is still wrong. They will end up almost the hightway and it is hard to find for people who have never been here before. How can this change?

Vanessa Schneider said...

Ciggysforless --

That's a technical issue we're working to fix. In the mean time, you can make a community edit to fix the marker. Instructions on how to do so here:

http://maps.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=98014

Thanks,

Vanessa, Google Places community manager

rick said...

I'm here in Jackson Wyoming. Your maps say that Moo's Gourmet Ice Cream is permanently closed. That is so wrong. I'm here with lines out the door. There address is,
Moo's Gourmet Ice Cream Inc.
110 Center Street
Jackson, Wy. 83001
307-733-1998

Vanessa Schneider said...

Thanks for the heads up, Rick. I reported that the address has changed, and once the new address is reviewed by our team, the page should be fixed. This is a case where the "Edit details on an unverified listing" section in the blog post above comes in handy.

- Vanessa, Google Places community manager