Hijacking the Verified Knowledge Panel

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.<p>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”?

How did they got #1 <i>and</i> #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.

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.

I just think of Sliceline from Silicon Valley, but like a digital version of switching boxes.

wasn&#x27;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?

Are they buying .com and .net tld&#x27;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?

What do the local restaurants say? Because the problem with Grubhub was that they phished the businesses&#x27; customers - no permission or relationship with the local businesses themselves.<p>My understanding of Slice is that they work directly with the pizza shops, so do they have this as a part of their agreement?

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).

Surely, Google will quickly ban Slice like they do users who violate their terms.<p>Just kidding. Slice has ad money to spend! They&#x27;ll get a gentle slap on the wrist.

How on earth aren&#x27;t these guys behind the bars yet?

dupe: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=23346971" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=23346971</a>