eli5: How can Google maps know many small and recent businesses’ locations so accurately?

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I’ve realised that most businesses (even small kiosks) are seen on Google maps. Where and how do they get that information?

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30 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

People add them. They are called Google Local Guides. I take pride in doing it, also you get special gifts from google. Nothing super amazing yet, I got a guide pin beta access to map features.

Anonymous 0 Comments

Because people edit the map often. Anyone with a Gmail can suggest edits.

Typically the company owner would add to the map, and claim the place as theirs(anyone can add a new place tho, and later the company can claim it if they want). After that, anyone can suggest an edit and the owner can verify that the edit is correct.

Hours, location, website…all the values are community driven, like Wikipedia or reddit

Anonymous 0 Comments

You can claim a business and add the information yourself, as the owner. (They will try to veriy somehow tat you are the owner, I believe.) Most businesses do it, because they assume it will help them get more exposure and bring business. (Monopoly power has a tendency to beget more monopoly power.)

Anonymous 0 Comments

You can enter it yourself now a days.
If it is wrong, you can submit a review.
I can for example submit my own house as a business

Anonymous 0 Comments

Companies are allowed to put their location on Google. Maybe even individuals. Some do good enough job themselves, some don’t and then people (like me) go out and usually fix their location if it’s incorrect, hours, add photos, web pages etc. And we get to see how many people have seen our changes/photos.

Anonymous 0 Comments

I have registered small business my self and pointed some other ones, so you can tell Google you have a small store or point out that there is one.

Anonymous 0 Comments

Hello! I manage Google Business Profiles for a living.

My job is to make Google Maps & Google Searches extremely attractive to the avg consumer for the businesses that I manage.

I upload pics, videos, content and make posts on Google to captivate the Searchers mind and make them interact with the page via Direction Requests, Website Visits, Calls etc.

It’s called Search Engine Optimization, the point is to increase exposure (high Google ranking/Algorithm Manipulation) and drive traffic to the business.

If you’d like to know more please feel free to reach out! I’m extremely passionate about Google SEO.

Anonymous 0 Comments

I work on Google maps and it is a combination of things. The main one is the street view cars capturing imagery. They prioritize locations based on how many times regular vehicles drive the road. So major cities get refreshed more than smaller towns. And business/urban areas get priority. This is also why street view cars don’t refresh residential areas.

For areas that do not have vehicle access, people with the trekker backpacks go collect.that imagery.

After that it is a pot of 3rd party data, direct contact with businesses and users making adjustments.

And it is advantageous for small business to update Google maps as soon as possible.

Hope this helps!

Anonymous 0 Comments

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Anonymous 0 Comments

Businesses want to be on Google maps. You tell Google is your business, they mail you a letter with a code and if you enter the correct code you own the listing on Google and can reply to reviews as the owner and change the name of the business etc.