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Level 9

Re: Duplicate locations; should I delete one?

hi @SamuelCalifornia

By marking duplicate of the location may get deleted ,But  It would have been better to have an option to have a Merge In Case of Duplicate . 

1) all the photos and reviews could be coupled and the both the Names May be same or Similar could be kept as one .

2) Search to both places will have the answer .

3) It will have more details of the places then

4) Which one to mark duplicate will also be confusing .

Keep Mapping.

   

https://www.localguidesconnect.com/t5/badges/userbadgespage/user-id/21203/page/1#
Connect Moderator

Re: Duplicate locations; should I delete one?

Hello @Sariga,

 

Your concerns is why there is a specific option stating that the feature is a duplicate.  When you choose that option a Google employee then analyzes the features and chooses the best to keep, then does as much merging and redirecting as possible to retain all the data sources.

Flash - LG Connect Moderator, Maps Platinum Product Expert, Map Maker Platinum Product Expert, RER and Regional Lead

Due to the volume I receive, I do not respond to unsolicited private messages

Level 9

Re: Duplicate locations; should I delete one?

Yes @Flash

it will be better to point out which one is duplicated. It is a suggestion Facebook have an option to Merge I found this as a better option 

https://www.localguidesconnect.com/t5/badges/userbadgespage/user-id/21203/page/1#
Connect Moderator

Re: Duplicate locations; should I delete one?

Google has it's own criteria to figure out which one should be kept and which one should be merged into it.  There was at one time the ability for us to merge duplicates ourselves, but too many people selected the wrong feature, sometimes by not applying the correct criteria or sometimes because the necessary information is only visible on the backend.  For this reason it has been restricted to Google employees only.

 

Features are merged, but Google does the selection. Please indicate one or the other as a duplicate, it does not matter which as Google will analyze them all and decide which to keep.

Flash - LG Connect Moderator, Maps Platinum Product Expert, Map Maker Platinum Product Expert, RER and Regional Lead

Due to the volume I receive, I do not respond to unsolicited private messages

Level 6

Re: Duplicate locations; should I delete one?


@PhilipF wrote:

@SamuelCalifornia wrote:

If the address is the legal address of the business then it seems valid for it to be in Google Maps at that location.


No it's not. You're maybe thinking about this the wrong way. Google Maps isn't a system for cataloguing businesses and as such there is no interest in looking for legal documents or considering what is the legal address. The Map is generally a way for users to find businesses or services they need. It's about places the user can go for face to face contact. Often that's in a store-fronted location on 'Main St' but the business can be located in a private home, so long as the location is staffed during stated hours. The issue with the business you have brought up is not that the listing is at a residential address, but that they don't seem to be expecting customers to actually go there because they only mention it as a mailing address


I did not say Google Maps is a system for cataloguing businesses. I said the opposite; that it is not and that causes problems. It makes things difficult for example if someone can remember a previous location of a business but not the name and the business moves. In Google Maps when a business moves the old location must be deleted (but it requires substantial diligence to figure that out); there is no way to connect the old and new locations. Another disadvantage is that it is difficult to determine what are active businesses. One problem is that if I try to ask the business then they ask me who I am and I say I am a volunteer trying to help them and everyone else and they hang up on me or tell me to go away.

 

So Google Maps is a mess with unreliable information.

 

I think you are being argumentative. Please interpret what I said in the context. Someone said that it is wrong for Google Maps to show a business at someone's home. I was trying to explain why it is that there are very many of them. I can easily find a hundred businesses with names that sound like a retail location but the location is a home. It would take a few hours but otherwise easy. One problem is that many, perhaps most, are not valid anymore. The important thing is that we agree that it is normal for a business to be at their home but instead of explaining that to the person saying it is not normal, you are criticizing my attempt to explain things.

Level 6

Re: Duplicate locations; should I delete one?

Thank you GreggG for the detailed explanation. I am sure that will help others.

 

I assume the location I asked about has been deleted. I went to delete it and I can't find it.

 

There are others I have found that I will submit delete requests for, for example a location that was for a single business meeting nearly three years ago; the date is in the title. It is still in there.

 

In the past I attempted to get attention for Charles Manson's place of worship ("Manson Caves") but that was ignored. I will try again in a separate thread.

Level 9
Level 9

Re: Duplicate locations; should I delete one?

Hi Samuel, lots of points there but let me start with the most important one. I'm honestly not trying to be argumentative. Mapping is quite a complicated and nuanced activity and often seems illogical so it can take a while to get our heads round the rules (which then evolve and sometimes change).

 

OK, to one specific point. In your earlier post you said: "we have an imperfect system for cataloging businesses". I assumed from that you were saying Google Maps is an imperfect system for cataloging businesses? If that was not your meaning I apologise (but I think you could understand my mistake). 

 

Without wishing to get bogged down in semantics, when you say "In Google Maps when a business moves the old location must be deleted" that's not quite right. The business must be marked as closed (or moved), which keeps the data on the map but hidden. Deleting a business removes everything and is only done when the place should never have been there. Now one might say that by drawing a difference between Deleted and Closed I'm being argumentative but really it's an important difference that mappers often confuse in meaning and application.

 

"Another disadvantage is that it is difficult to determine what are active businesses". Can you give an example, maybe with some specifics it will help clarify. 

 

"Someone said that it is wrong for Google Maps to show a business at someone's home." Can you point to where they said that because they are wrong. As already mentioned further up the thread, there is nothing fundamentally wrong with a home business. The important part is whether they have face to face customer contact at that location. If they don't expect to have people come to their home then it's pointless them being on the map. 

 

Level 6

Re: Duplicate locations; should I delete one?

Thank you, PhilipF. Let's just say that my use of the word "cataloging" was confusing.

 

You say "Mapping is quite a complicated and nuanced activity" but quite often programmers make things more complicated than they need to be. As a programmer I know how complicated it can be to make things easy for the user. Sometimes it is more a matter of design and the programming can be relatively easy.

 

Yes, I understand that there is a difference between closing and deleting. It was too much work for me to get answers to my questions when I wanted to know what to do when a business moves. I searched for answers without asking in a forum and it really should be easier.

 

I am sorry that I don't have an example of a business that I am not sure is active.

 

It was in this thread that someone said "it is wrong for Google Maps to show a business at someone's home". I said that to explain why I said what I said that you reacted to.