Locks and Security News: your weekly locks and security industry newsletter
10th April 2024 Issue no. 700

Your industry news - first

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We have Mail: Google locksmiths' story

Thanks for covering The New York Times' locksmith story. I helped the reporter with some of the research for that article but in the end the article was cut down quite a bit for length. I just want to share some of my insight.

You quote "Google's local results algorithm has not fixed the fake listing problem", but in fact they are and things are indeed changing. Two specifically:

1) Google's investment in Thumbtack and HomeAdvisor means their vetted locksmiths are getting integrating into search results

2) Home Service Ads

I wrote more about this in detail here: http://www.cogney.com.hk/blog/locksmith-spam/

Would it be possible to point to my supplement in your post so readers get a fuller picture?

Best,

Doug Pierce

Head of Search & Analytics

10th February 2016