A must-read from The New York Times.
“As a small business, it’s like David versus Goliath,” said Andrew Ding, the owner of the Handpulled Noodle. The shop’s Google listing is how most customers find his restaurant, yet, he said, he has no control over how his business is represented. There is no way for him to get rid of the ad next to the Google listing.
“Google is it,” Mr. Ding said in an interview. “I would love for small business owners that don’t have the clout or the influence to have more say about how their business is represented.”
There are countless small business owners out there like Andrew Ding.
Executives at Yelp have pushed for action against Google for years, but the U.S. authorities have done nothing. The EU has stepped in to partially fill the vacuum, but small businesses in the United States need a regulator in their own country on the job.