In another case of major mapspam (discovered first by Imnotadoctor), a SMB-local Internet market firm, Big Local, has captured many of the top positions in the Google Maps “onebox” for the category “Internet consulting.” Below are some examples from various cities.
The rest of this post is at Search Engine Land.
Screenwerk 
May 2, 2008 at 8:00 pm
If you search inside of Google Maps with the site command using this syntax “big local” site:clovers.com you see that they posted 4,176 listings.
Mike
May 2, 2008 at 8:20 pm
Wow, mapspam indeed!
Whoever submitted their Minneapolis listing is either clever or a guy who needs to spend more time with his wife.
The address listed is 307 S. 3rd St which Google maps considers very close to city center. Doing a street view on Google there is no address, but 308 S. 3rd St. shows a picture of Ricks Cabaret, a well-known “gentlemens” club.
May 2, 2008 at 8:53 pm
The superpages listing I cite in the SEL post is probably fabricated too.
May 2, 2008 at 10:40 pm
[…] Seeing Yet Another Map Spam post, compelled me to finally post my updated MapSpam 2010 presentation (in quicktime format). I gave this at Where 2.0 a couple years ago but thought it’s becoming a bit more relevant (it used to be called MapSpam 2008). It really just kind of begs the question about what is MapSpam? One person’s spam is another’s legitimate offer? Right now, we only seem to have “Home” and “Personal” MapSpam thanks to Google Local and Google Maps on the Web and the iPhone. Looking forward to “Mobile” MapSpam. Can’t wait to get spammed on my onboard navigation system (which should be coming from Google anyday now). Thanks to Perry for letting me post this. […]
May 2, 2008 at 10:46 pm
This post made me finally got off my butt and posted the MapSpam 2010 slideshow we talked about, Greg. Certainly no question about what side this falls into – spam or legitimate results.
May 11, 2008 at 2:25 pm
[…] prominently in Google search results) has become an increasingly high stakes game for some with corresponding instances of mapspam. Amazingly, even one of Google’s partners, Earthlink, has apparently engaged in […]
June 3, 2008 at 9:38 pm
[…] for Business Group has led to uncovering of another case of widespread mapspam very similar to the Big Local and Earthlink reported earlier and covered […]
June 20, 2008 at 2:57 pm
[…] May and early June there were reports of high volume bulk upload Mapspam for Earthlink, BigLocal and Computer Assistant. These listings were national in scope and often noted that the listing was […]
February 17, 2009 at 5:45 pm
Since I have been back in Google Local with ehlinelaw.com/, I have seen overwhelming Mapspam for practically every law firm in California, most notably, “Los Angeles”.
The ones who are doing it are controlling the one, three and ten packs for practically every popular keyword. The typical violations are multiple addresses for the City of “Los Angeles”, and variations of the firm names for the same locations, as well as now, listing the employees and partners for each firm for the same locations in “Los Angeles”
As you should know, most people looking for an attorney in Los Angeles County, type in “Los Angeles” personal injury lawyer, motorcycle accident attorney, injury lawyers, etc.
So someone with several fake addresses downtown is not only getting all the City business, but the business for the entire County!
There is no way to report in in the Maps Groups as comments are closed.
I am angered, since I was banned for over 7 months for doing much less than these guys, and they are all dominating local search. Any suggestions?
February 19, 2009 at 11:59 pm
Big Local what a joke this company is. Last September 19th I recieved a call for a 3 month trial of there service, Busy and not wanting to keep this conversation from going anymore, i said yes to there 19.95 per month billing ending on december 19 . On december 17th i call them to cancell and so i thought they did till today. Feb. 19th at 5:00pm i get a call with a person saying that may account was put on hold, because i diidn’t not reply for the cancellation 5 days proir to that ending date of dec. 19th. They didn’t spell my descriptions of my business right and they don’t use my phone number. This lady says, my business has been recieving calls because they can monitor there phone number. ( which i have never recieved any calls at all. There is much more to this but do anyone know how to get out of this bill? It went up to a $100.00 per month and this service is goofy how they do business
April 9, 2009 at 5:21 am
Telemarket and boiler room tactics ** for map spam Just say no.
November 20, 2011 at 4:31 pm
hotdeal…
[…]Big Mapspam from Big Local « Screenwerk[…]…
January 30, 2012 at 9:16 pm
Although I haven’t seen something like this in a long time there are still a lot of problems with Google Maps and their local product. I noticed that other law firms are taking my local address and using it to try and benefit them in a spammy if not illegal way.
I think this product requires better Q&A to prevent people from taking advantage of it. I do see a lot of positive changes that have been helping it, but I fear I have not seen the end.