When Google changed its local brand from "Google My Business" to "Google Business Profile" in November of 2021, its Facebook URL changed from facebook.com/GoogleMyBusiness to facebook.com/GoogleBusinessProfile.
Joy Hawkins pointed out on Twitter, we live in a world of unintended consequences:
When Google My Business rebranded, they changed the URL for their Facebook support page to match the new name. Take a look at who snatched the old one. Do you know how many links online point to this URL? 🤦♀️https://t.co/PmhBl2Pkym #fail
— Joy Hawkins (@JoyanneHawkins) January 28, 2022
h/t @CarrieHill
The bad news: the page was quickly taken over by a business that sells Google reviews. The good news, they are only $4.
The moral of this tale is that both Google and Facebook failed the public vis-a-vis the world of consumer reviews. Google failed to prevent fake reviews from continuing to have value and Facebook failed to police its network for obvious scams.
Truly a grim metaphor for the state of reviews and moderation.
