When I searched using some of these Khmer keywords, I found many results, especially around Phnom Penh.
At first, some of them look funny, but then I started thinking: Google Maps is a public map used by everyone.
These places may not be businesses, landmarks, attractions, or useful public locations. Some may even point to private homes. If many people do this, Maps can become crowded with information that is not useful for navigation.
Last year, our Cambodia Local Guides community also documented much more serious cases involving fake and non-existent locations and personal harassment on Google Maps. This case is not necessarily the same level of abuse, but it makes me interested in understanding how this happens in other countries.
Do you see this kind of thing in your country too?
What kinds of funny, personal, or unnecessary locations have you found?
And where should we draw the line between something harmless and something that should be reported or removed?
I would really like to learn from Local Guides from different countries.
I did see this occasionally in Germany, France or Italy but not very often. Quite a while ago there was a discussion on the same topic here on Connect and seems there are countries where this happens very frequently.
This is a know issue, mostly based on a lack of knowledge about the policies @SophatCHY . Adding your home in Google Maps as a POI is not permitted: Business & place eligibility - Maps User Generated Content Policy Help
I’m normally removing that as “not existing”
Normally my edits of this type are approved very quickly
@WilfriedB Yes, but education and knowledge about Maps policies are still quite limited in Cambodia, so many people don’t realize adding a home as a POI isn’t allowed.
@ErmesT I understand Google has a policy on this, but the real issue is that the people who create these places never read the policy in the first place, and Google rarely takes proactive action against them.
That’s exactly why I raised this — I think Google should build something at the system level, like limiting or blocking certain personal keywords (e.g. “my home,” “my wife’s house,” or anything clearly personal tied to a home), instead of leaving it entirely to manual detection.
Reporting one by one works, but it’s not sustainable — new entries keep appearing faster than Local Guides can find and report them. A built-in keyword filter or automatic flag at the point of creation would catch most of these before they even go live.
I fully understand what you mean. Unfortunately there are real businesses that have the word “Home” in their name. The name of this restaurant is “casa mia” (my home).
This is making difficult to filter that kind of locations. However, my feeling is that we are talking about old additions, and now it’s more difficult to add places that are not digitally verifiable
Haha, Bangladeshi maps are full of these. We have “in-law’s home”, brother’s home, aunty’s house, sometimes even cuss words. Local guides in Bangladesh regularly go for “cleanup drives” to remove these spam locations.
