gritspartan's comments

There are two other countries which have coastlines on the Gulf of Mexico. They are Cuba and Mexico. Neither of them call it the Gulf of America. The name is not inclusive, even when you leave out Trump's intentions.

Except, no part of Central nor South America touches the Gulf of Mexico. The only three countries which coasts on the Gulf are the US, Mexico, and Cuba. All of these are in North America, and I'm pretty the latter two are not going to go along with the idea.

To be fair to Google, they are simply following a policy they've had since 2008. There is a similar issue with the Sea of Japan/East Sea.

Matt posted a blog late last night about blocking Joost de Valk, Karim Marucchi, Se Reed, Heather Burns, and Morten Rand-Hendriksen on Wordpress.org. It's precisely because they disagree with Matt's leadership.

https://wordpress.org/news/2025/01/jkpress/

Still not buying this argument.

If it was a simple matter of trademark abuse, your attorneys talk to theirs. If nothing good comes out of that, your attorneys file a suit. Have you done this? Nope.

This is not about the supposed trademark abuse.

Scale is part of the problem. It actually hurts small businesses.

There is a probably on Google Maps where a marketer will setup a website, a lot of business listings, and get a Google Business Profile for a "local business" which doesn't actually exist. This is all setup to attract unsuspecting customers to share their information which is then sold to local contractors often without informing the customers and/or the local contractors.

It's a practice known as lead gen and/or rank-and-rent.

For an example, you can look up a "business" called Seattle Grease Trap Services on Google Maps. It's part of a network of fake businesses run by marketer in Hawaii. Check the profiles of the people who leave reviews to find some of the others.

Another example is found by searching for deck builders in Chicago. There are several variations of Koval, TOD, CPC, and similar companies. This is all operated by a local marketing company that I managed to identify in less than an hour.

I report these frauds, nothing happens. I escalate. Nothing happens. So I've given up, but I know that these listings cost local businesses actually work. And even though they're against Google guidelines, nothing happens.

Local library. Recreation centers. Local board game shops. Events and activities in the community. Volunteering. Religious groups. College campuses often host groups and events from the community. Art classes. Dance classes.

Check the local newspaper as they often list events and activities.