Google

[heyzeus]

So two of my good friends took a huge professional and personal risk a few years ago and opened a brewpub in Houston with their friends. They literally converted their home into this place. It's their entire lives. It took 2 years to get the permitting lined up, but they did it! It's been open maybe 4 years now, and was doing pretty well.

Then of course, coronavirus.

Being smart and resourceful, they converted to takeout. Then, as the city's guidelines changed, and state law changed to allow alcohol delivery during the crisis, they changed their business model again to delivery. Anything to survive, and keep at least some of their employees working through this [expletive].

Then over the weekend, Google removed them from their search engine. Gone. If you gooogle for brewpubs in Houston, they don't turn up. Google informed them it's because they updated their website too many times in a short period of time. Yes, of course they did. Every restaurant has had to completely revolutionize their business model in real time as different levels of shelter in place have been imposed!

They're trying to appeal this, but faceless internet search engines don't tend to provide much in the way of transparency or customer service.

Anyone here know what they should do?

Anyway, [expletive] Google.

[InvincibleCakeEater]

I would be curious as to what kind of changes they were making. Google's algorithm loves new content, so the only thing I can think is that they were completely changing the copy on their site rather than just adding to it. It's likely that they're just in Google's "sandbox" right now, and will be back in the index in about 2 weeks.

[mikechamp]

I did not see this coming, but I'm sure this will turn out fine:

Why Google is seeking approval to release millions of mosquitoes in Florida and California

The company is seeking an experimental use permit from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for a mosquito-control project involving male Culex quinquefasciatus mosquitoes. The Federal Register notice lists the submitter as "Google LLC" and identifies the pesticide chemical as "Wolbachia pipientis wAlbB Contained in Live Adult Culex quinquefasciatus Male Mosquitoes (DQB Strain)."

According to the Federal Register, Google is proposing to release the mosquitoes over two years in California and Florida... the project could involve up to 32 million mosquitoes in Florida and up to 32 million in California over two years, or up to 64 million total across the two states.

The goal is reproduction control. When Wolbachia-treated male mosquitoes mate with wild female mosquitoes, the resulting eggs are not expected to hatch. Over time, repeated releases can reduce the local population of the targeted mosquito species.

The mosquitoes in Google's proposal are male, which is a key distinction for residents who may be uneasy about the plan. Male mosquitoes do not bite people. Female mosquitoes are the ones that bite humans and animals and can spread disease.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/science/arti ... 38173.html

[CardsofSTL]

Why is google involved with mosquitoes