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>"User Generated Content is great, innit? As a company, I want users to submit photos, so I don't have to do any content curation. Moderation? Nah mate, stick s

>"User Generated Content is great, innit? As a company, I want users to submit photos, so I don't have to do any content curation. Moderation? Nah mate, stick some AI on there to filter out anything offensive and we're golden." >"Anyway, I reported it - yay for doing unpaid labour for a megacorporation " I don't get this sarcastic tone. User-generated content on Google Maps is pretty solid after all these years. One or two bad apples don't diminish it. And no, I don't think Google have the manpower, nor should they waste theirs, to "curate" or "mod" the content proactively other than dealing with reports. The author probably has a point for things like YouTube comments since the SNR is so damn low, but GMaps? Really?

cookiengineer 5y ago
> User-generated content on Google Maps is pretty solid after all these years. In Germany, there are lots of scammers registering domains for businesses that have no Google Page, and owners of restaurants are literally extorted with those practices. For example, lieferando/takeaway claims business pages with custom domains in an automated process to force restaurants into using their platform, they literally own thousands of domains like "restaurant-name-in-city.de". Additionally the phone number is routed through their VoIP gateway, and it's published everywhere like this. So if people try to call the restaurant, they call through their hotline, which gives them even more power to put pressure on restaurant owners to pay premium. I'm sorry, but this yelp style mafia shit that this solution allowed is not what I can support in good faith.
- im3w1l 5y ago
  Sounds like textbook trademark infringement.
  - qayxc 5y ago
    How so? Trademarks have to be registered in order to be protected and even then you have to actively pursue potential violations (i.e. "defend it"), lest you lose it anyway. You really think that your average family restaurant or mom-and-pop store that does offers delivery on the side can afford that? Besides, in my region there's at least 4 restaurants and hotels named "Black Eagle" in a 10 km radius. You could never protect that name for various reasons.
    - im3w1l 5y ago
      Because they show not just disregard for customer confusion, they are deliberately using the brand to cause customer confusion and benefit from the good reputation.
      - qayxc 5y ago
        But location names are distinctively not brand names. I know that concept might be confusing depending on your cultural background, but in most parts of Europe restaurants aren't chains and their names aren't brands. Each restaurant is usually a family business and it's perfectly normal to find the same pub or restaurant name in nearby towns.
Ansil849 5y ago
You completely ignored the "doing unpaid labour for a megacorporation" portion, which is the "sarcastic" point the author is making. Unpaid individuals should not be doing content moderation for Google.
- thrdbndndn 5y ago
  Just don't do it if you don't want? I'm very surprised someone would call marking harmful material on a website "doing content moderation for XXX company". I flag posts on HN in regular basis too, I guess that counts as "doing unpaid labor" as well. I benefit a lot from GMaps as a community, so I don't mind to contribute some bit. No, Google don't pay me or anyone in the community, but they provided the platform which isn't nothing. "Cost" is never even in my mind. I just.. use it as a tool. At this point I guess our values are just different, so I'm not going to argue with that. Practically speaking, it's unlikely Google don't have a moderation team for GMaps at all, but it's literally impossible for any company to go through all the content at GMaps' scale, even if they tried. User report is alway needed.
- isbvhodnvemrwvn 5y ago
  They don't have to if they don't want to.
- pharrington 5y ago
  This is the online version of picking up the trash when you're at the shopping mall. Some people actually just enjoy improving their immediate surroundings!
edent 5y ago
If Google can't afford to do something safely, then they don't have a viable business. A business can't say "well, people just can pick the glass shards out of the cupcakes themselves."
- Ansil849 5y ago
  "But we make so many cupcakes, it is 'literally impossible' for us to be able to make sure each one is glass free" ... is what some people in this thread defending Google seem to think.
  - thrdbndndn 5y ago
    Tell me exactly how any large-scale user-generated content platform can eliminate it especially if you consider user report "unpaid labor"? What about you just reply to my other comment directly to you with some rationale instead bad-mouthing somewhere else like a coward?
    - Nextgrid 5y ago
      > how any large-scale user-generated content platform can eliminate it Give an incentive to people to not break the rules. Make accounts cost money, etc. At the moment spam or similar abuse is virtually consequence-free for the spammer. If accounts were paid then there becomes a real monetary downside in having your account banned because of spam. Silicon Valley loves to pretend like this is an unsolvable problem, but in reality the forums from the good old days somehow managed to keep abuse mostly at bay despite often operating with no budget and unpaid volunteers as moderators. Finally, if you can't build a platform resilient to abuse, the answer is to not build it instead of building it and letting it pollute the world and be a risk to everyone else. In this particular case the abuse is quite tame but there are other more serious problems mentioned elsewhere in this thread such as scammers using Google Maps as a free lead generator.
      - emodendroket 5y ago
        > in reality the forums from the good old days somehow managed to keep abuse mostly at bay despite often operating with no budget and unpaid volunteers as moderators. Someone's got rose-colored glasses on.

cookiengineer 5y ago

> User-generated content on Google Maps is pretty solid after all these years. In Germany, there are lots of scammers registering domains for businesses that have no Google Page, and owners of restaurants are literally extorted with those practices. For example, lieferando/takeaway claims business pages with custom domains in an automated process to force restaurants into using their platform, they literally own thousands of domains like "restaurant-name-in-city.de". Additionally the phone number is routed through their VoIP gateway, and it's published everywhere like this. So if people try to call the restaurant, they call through their hotline, which gives them even more power to put pressure on restaurant owners to pay premium. I'm sorry, but this yelp style mafia shit that this solution allowed is not what I can support in good faith.

im3w1l 5y ago
Sounds like textbook trademark infringement.
- qayxc 5y ago
  How so? Trademarks have to be registered in order to be protected and even then you have to actively pursue potential violations (i.e. "defend it"), lest you lose it anyway. You really think that your average family restaurant or mom-and-pop store that does offers delivery on the side can afford that? Besides, in my region there's at least 4 restaurants and hotels named "Black Eagle" in a 10 km radius. You could never protect that name for various reasons.
  - im3w1l 5y ago
    Because they show not just disregard for customer confusion, they are deliberately using the brand to cause customer confusion and benefit from the good reputation.
    - qayxc 5y ago
      But location names are distinctively not brand names. I know that concept might be confusing depending on your cultural background, but in most parts of Europe restaurants aren't chains and their names aren't brands. Each restaurant is usually a family business and it's perfectly normal to find the same pub or restaurant name in nearby towns.

Ansil849 5y ago

You completely ignored the "doing unpaid labour for a megacorporation" portion, which is the "sarcastic" point the author is making. Unpaid individuals should not be doing content moderation for Google.

thrdbndndn 5y ago
Just don't do it if you don't want? I'm very surprised someone would call marking harmful material on a website "doing content moderation for XXX company". I flag posts on HN in regular basis too, I guess that counts as "doing unpaid labor" as well. I benefit a lot from GMaps as a community, so I don't mind to contribute some bit. No, Google don't pay me or anyone in the community, but they provided the platform which isn't nothing. "Cost" is never even in my mind. I just.. use it as a tool. At this point I guess our values are just different, so I'm not going to argue with that. Practically speaking, it's unlikely Google don't have a moderation team for GMaps at all, but it's literally impossible for any company to go through all the content at GMaps' scale, even if they tried. User report is alway needed.
isbvhodnvemrwvn 5y ago
They don't have to if they don't want to.
pharrington 5y ago
This is the online version of picking up the trash when you're at the shopping mall. Some people actually just enjoy improving their immediate surroundings!

edent 5y ago

If Google can't afford to do something safely, then they don't have a viable business. A business can't say "well, people just can pick the glass shards out of the cupcakes themselves."

Ansil849 5y ago
"But we make so many cupcakes, it is 'literally impossible' for us to be able to make sure each one is glass free" ... is what some people in this thread defending Google seem to think.
- thrdbndndn 5y ago
  Tell me exactly how any large-scale user-generated content platform can eliminate it especially if you consider user report "unpaid labor"? What about you just reply to my other comment directly to you with some rationale instead bad-mouthing somewhere else like a coward?
  - Nextgrid 5y ago
    > how any large-scale user-generated content platform can eliminate it Give an incentive to people to not break the rules. Make accounts cost money, etc. At the moment spam or similar abuse is virtually consequence-free for the spammer. If accounts were paid then there becomes a real monetary downside in having your account banned because of spam. Silicon Valley loves to pretend like this is an unsolvable problem, but in reality the forums from the good old days somehow managed to keep abuse mostly at bay despite often operating with no budget and unpaid volunteers as moderators. Finally, if you can't build a platform resilient to abuse, the answer is to not build it instead of building it and letting it pollute the world and be a risk to everyone else. In this particular case the abuse is quite tame but there are other more serious problems mentioned elsewhere in this thread such as scammers using Google Maps as a free lead generator.
    - emodendroket 5y ago
      > in reality the forums from the good old days somehow managed to keep abuse mostly at bay despite often operating with no budget and unpaid volunteers as moderators. Someone's got rose-colored glasses on.