Googe with $80 billion a year in sales uses volunteers to report problems with maps and Internet scammers that fake physical addresses. Volunteers. No wonder the company is so profitable.
The New York Times did an article on how most listings for locksmiths are fakes. Here's a link to the story. Google charges $30 a click through for locksmiths in many urban marketings because competition for those keywords is so fierce. Problem is, most advertisers are fakes. They are lead generation businesses that promise $30 lock services and then when the guys gets there they take advantage of the customer and charge many many more times that.
It's a nice little trick. They trick Google into thinking they are brick and mortar operations and come up in searches by consumers as such. Unsuspecting people call them only to be duped into paying exorbitant fees.
Google says it's trying to stop the fraud but because their service is based on volunteers the data isn't correct. More than that, according to the article, fraudsters themselves become volunteers to help identify their own fakes. Great system.
In the end, Google can't be trusted to provide accurate data. It's easily tricked.
It's a different ballgame with something printed like a magazine or newspaper. Though it's possible to trick us, it's a lot harder and there is a clear trail to follow. That's probably why trust in those things remains so high and people don't trust online listings. Understandable. In Arizona for example, Google showed 6,600 locksmiths when there are in fact about 600 in actuality. That's a lot of fakes