Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Don't Believe Everything ...

Don't believe everything you see on Google. I tell people that all the time. Now I have a perfect example of why you shouldn't believe Google.

This weekend and today, my front door was besieged by people knocking and asking if this was indeed the humane society. (OK, 5 or so people which counts a siege out here. {*grin*}) I'd tell them no and then give them the right number to call. But I also was very curious as to why people suddenly thought my house was the humane society. All of them said that this was the address the internet told them. I put 2 and 2 together and figured it was something odd on Google.

Sure enough, if you search for Logan County Humane Society, right there in the first page of results sits this little gem:
Note that it does indeed have one of the LCHS (Logan County Humane Society) numbers listed, but every other detail is wrong. Who knew Google could be so completely off the wall?

Unable to leave it at that, I clicked through - lo and behold the idiocy continues:

There are so many wrongs here it is painful. The picture in the lower right is indeed 510 Glenora via the Google cam car and is indeed my house. But Google has it labeled internally as 514. The map is correct. But ....

The Logan County Humane Society is not a county agency, it is a 501(c)3 corporation with no association to the county. 510 Glenora is my house, nothing to do with the humane society. The nearby places in Yuma, CO - are close to 60 miles down the road, etc.

I filed the forms to get this removed and corrected, but Google is noted for being slow to fix egregious errors like this. So keep your eye out to see how long it takes them to fix it. Click here to see the Google maps page in real time.

In the mean time I sent the county commissioners an email chiding them for their aggressive take over of private property for new secret offices. Wonder if they'll catch the humor?

Time to go answer the door again. Only another 20,000 door knocks to go and I will have explained that this is not the humane society no matter what Google says to everyone in the county.

(Given the severe thunderstorm warning and thunder booming happening at the moment, Molly is busy laying on my feet and begging for reassurance, not answering the door. Probably a good thing. A dog answering the door might encourage people to believe this really is the humane society.)

5 comments:

  1. Good grief!! That's a little bizarre... put a sign in the yard so people will stop asking :)

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  2. Yikes that is a problem; especially when you start waking up to boxes of kittens left on your doorstep.

    I hope you send some of the rain our way.

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  3. Well, if every you needed a new pet now is the time for opportunity. :)

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  4. I'll be curious to hear about the email response from the county commissioners :)

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  5. You sent the county commissioners an email? You should have sent them a bill for rent...

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You know you want to ... so just do it!!!

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