Not having that problem in the UK.

Keith

Ouch - that's not good! Let's hope its a short-term glitch!

If businesses had to wait on GP to send their confirmation cards....I could only imagine!

Yuckie! Hope that's temporary. Thanks for the update, Mario.

i noticed that too the other day. I think the 2-3 week time line is probably a lot shorter.

its not that google is taking it away, They do this from time to time. If a area is getting alot of maps up lately then they think something is up. so they take away the phone Verification. If you cant get a post card for that address just wait 3-6 days then log back in then you will see that the phone Verification will work. But even if they did take it away one day for good, that would be a good thing. when you wait for the postcard you can start working on backlinks for it then when you have the listing live it will get to letter A alot faster.

sounds good

well alot of people dont know that much about places just yet. One thing I have seen lately is that ether people are tryin to make places sound harder then it is or places is just messing with us and just changing things around for differnt areas. Ether way I will help anyone when I can, I scratch your back you scratch mine. lol.

Well lets see. You changed the phone number on your listing, most of the time when any one does this google will more likly send a post card just to make sure you are the owner. If they didnt to many people could hack in and change your number to their number.

This happens more then you think. So Yes they will send a post card, Does suck but good in many ways.

That happened for us a few months ago, and then the telephone verification came back shortly thereafter.

I hope it settles down soon as we're running a workshop next month for local businesses on Places!

I wouldn't panic just yet - this may be a test or just some fluke.

Having said that, I don't think it would be the best move on Google's part to only send postcards. I had a client and it took him 6 weeks to get the card. I don't know if it actually took 6 weeks or if he got it 5 weeks ago and FOUND it again. Point is, clients aren't responsible with something like this... and that's where the problem would lie if Google made this a "standard".

Mario, I'd try and create a few other listings and also talk with other "listers" and see if they're experiencing the same in other states.

Google wants to be THE SOURCE for local data online and sending postcards for validation is not going to be the way to get where they want to be in a timely matter, let alone relying on the business OWNER to remember to save a little, tiny postcard.

I just did a GP listing in Alabama and it was phone verified. You know we are always the last to get everything in Alabama

i can still phone verify

I think Google should require both. Unfortunately, there are too many people out their trying to set up fictious business listings that they can rent out.
If Google were to require both, this would help eliminate the false listings. Having to verify by phone and by mail via a postcard. I agree that 2-3 weeks is a long time, but there isn't a whole lot we can do about it.
Just have to ride the wave and not let this interfere with GP listings for clients. It may be more inconvenient, but still not a big deal.
In an effort to avoid this, work with only clients that have already claimed their listings, until things settle down with Google. Or if you offer a guarantee like, we will get you on the first page in xx days, have the guarantee start once the listing has been verified.

I just did a client's claiming of their GP, and it did offer the phone verification at the end. Ity could be because the GP had been in place for some time, so wasn't a new listing.

EDIT:
Should have mentioned that I live in the Chicago south suburbs.

Hey Mario,

Thanks for the head's up on this. I sent you a PM a few days ago with some questions about your Google Places Unleashed course. Please let me know if you have received it and get back to me when you can.

Thanks,

Mike

I agree with JSamson because of all of these spammy products google has decided to pull off phone verification.

Google realized we are gaming their systems.

but its gonna hurt small business now verification post card will take at-least 5 to 6 weeks to arrive and if you are SEO guy you gotta wait longer than before to see the optimizations outcome .

we have tested no phone verification option in the UK and USA.

No phone verification for me and I have 12 clients to set up today. Great.

I have been trying to do phone verification since Monday and no option. I am in California but have clients throughout US. This has happened before but I go back and delete listing and redo and then get phone verification. This time is not like that. It is definitely down and not available.

There are a couple of educated guesses I have here. For one, if I have ten customers while my IP is being logged on these digital transactions, and THEN Google sends out a phone call to a customer who does not answer; that could get your IP turned off for awhile.

Also, if you are setting up in the same situation and using your own phone for verification more than once in a day, I can see that getting flagged as well.

Not that this is what is happening, but I can see that it is easy enough to create this kind of code to manage what IP's, emails, phone numbers are being used and tracked as entries to the database are entered. Obviously there has to be some kind of leeway for Google, as any given company may have several locations (though I recall that is a selection in the process of signing up).

Again, I have not run through any kind of USE CASE to understand what may be going on here completely, but I do not doubt there will be conditions in place to filter or limit entries in bulk. As well, confirming by phone in the way that Google does is far too valuable to get rid of, so I know that this is not a technology that is under threat. Another guess along those lines is that Google is large enough to want follow government regulations which would include the paper reduction act, so sending postcards only is not a solution. Again, just a guess that sounds right to me, and which leads me to think they are tracking (IP's, Phones, ZIP) and applying a database rule. This is certainly a good point to bring up for the community of offline marketers, so thanks for the post.

This happened not too long ago.... They did this in some areas and not in others....

The last time it was southern florida, and somewhere else..... I can't remember...

I am wondering if that is happening again... I freakin' hope so...

The bad thing here...

I just tried to do another listing.... and it didn't give the phone option. Which is wierd because I did one earlier today.

The thought of IP addresses being tracked is VERY possible. I hope not but as with everything... there is a way around it.

We just have to figure out what it is... or wait 5-6 days to get the listing verified.

It is what it is......

The concern about the gatekeeper tossing it as junk mail is a threat... but I think if we educate our clients well enough... it won't be an issue. That just means we are going to have to do a little more work...

darn it....

Google cant see your MAC address . (Mac Address is layer 2 address) they are using technology call device finger print.

I don't blame Google for doing these . we are internet marketers responsible for it.

Guys, as i mentioned in the previous post. Google cant see your MAC address . not just google no one can see your MAC address. MAC address is layer 2 protocol which isn't visible outside of your local segments .

Google using something call device finger prints to detect spamming efforts .

@ david . you are right Gplaces doesn't trigger any results for Query : web designer , SEO . etc

Has anyone having this challenge tried proxies with a new client?

My guess is that the option would still be only for postcard verification for the particular listing that you've had this happen to, but testing out a proxy on a new client might rule out whether it's an IP issue or not.

If changing your IP doesn't fix this when verifying a new client in the same area, then I would have to wonder if it's the area, or maybe even the type of business in that area possibly (like someone had mentioned earlier about too many listings going up at once making it seem fishy...).

Russell =P

russel, we tried to create nearly 30 different type of business with new IP addresses and new user agents. nothing really worked . we even tried to create listing for restaurants and pizza shop . whatever your business type and location, there is only one way to verify new listing : post card.

I created 4 new listings this past week, all with phone verifications. No problems. I think it may depend on other factors.

dude, even wed day evening everything was okay . they stopped phone verification since Thursday .

One could or could not be location... I think it may depend on where you are....

Ok im not to technical but have experience in using google places.

around the 10th Decemeber 2010 my PC put an add on google places and then that was the end of phone verification for that despite resetting my cache ect. I tried on my MAC and it worked, strangley i had to reset safari everytime and it had to be created in google UK so as to avoid the Encryption. this worked until approximately 6pm on the 20th January 1 day after a long awaited local listings update.

since then i have tried adding more, ive changed proxies (private) and the reset methods, new numbers, merged google accounts with yahoo. NOTHING.

the one thing thats obvious by seeing what happened to the PC is that google does somehow detect your computer or ISP or something to know its someone associated with other Accounts.

now the UK google also has encrypion that cannot be avoided.

im going to try create an account in the APPLE store tomorow to see if phone verification is closed off to everyone or just individuals associated with other accounts.

why would it happen on a PC before an IMAC?

my finding suggest its google knowing that you have already created a listing.

but i could be wrong

Keeping a close eye on this people as im just launching into the offline world this could be a big stumbling block for me just when i thought it was time to GO ive now been averted by this keep the updates coming

Thanks Brendan

Mario, thank you for helping me out with the breaking news. That sucks but our patience will be rewarded I'm sure.

Could depend on the industry and/or geographic are you create a listing in. Let's just hope this doesn't become standard.

I have heard of this happening before, especially when people try to spam a certain area with flagged listings. I think it is a security measure to keep it from happening. At least I very much hope so, it does seem to follow the normal pattern.

Now places optimizations become way harder than organic optimizations . Google stopped it because some people were so greedy : some people were selling leads and others were selling ebook/tutorial "how to create tons of spammy listings" . I am sure Matt cutts were reading some of these ebook/post and he advised Google to block this loophole (phone verification).

Hi guys- I just finished writing a pdf guide for my upcoming lead gen workshop on the subject. As of today, Google Places does allow phone verification for NEW listings, but postcard on edits for existing listings concerning address or telephone number changes. I don't know if that is the same as in your areas.

This is all very interesting, and my interest is mostly coming from my IT security background. I do not really understand what everyone is doing specifically. There are more variables involved than people are explaining in how they are setting up places. I have just recently started to take on clients in the "offline marketing" manner; everyone I am talking to already has a places listing - including me. So beyond what I went through on my own, I am not getting any personal experience in signing up even more than one google places listing.

Some questions I have are after the statement "Places is no longer allowing phone verification"

Are you filling these forms out yourself?
More than one a day?
Are you setting the customers phone as the verification contact?
Do you call the customer and tell them they will receive a phone call shortly that will tell them a code to enter? (did they answer it?)
Are you using a unique gmail address?
If so, is it associated somehow with your original gmail address?

It's after those questions, that IP and MAC addresses come into play if at all (remember many people in the world do their work from internet cafe' which can end up using the same IP; this is just an example that signing up from the same IP is not that large of a priority.

I think the main issue in my head is that I can only imagine a scenario where if your client has no listing on places, you will have to walk them through this in a PDF tutorial or email or on the phone with them helping them to fill it out. Again, I have little experience filling these out for others, because they tend to already have them where I am; so I am really curious about what process you are all following.

From an IT security view:
Some may think that we can not see your MAC - that is only true if there is a privacy policy in place. Otherwise, if you have agreed to some sort of TOS, YES we can see your MAC. Even before any IP is involved, the MAC is used as the primary unique identifier of any device, especially the network card.

For those on a windows system try this:
Technitium MAC Address Changer v5 Release 3 (FREEWARE)

If you are using the same phone, I can tell you that will shut down immediately. So I cannot imagine anyone is trying to do that. I could imagine setting protocols allowing a few signups on the same phone number, but more than three, no way. Anyone setting up a system like this would easily kill that.

As for IP numbers, most people are on dynamic IP, the first three sets may stay the same, and I could see those being logged - but it would not be feasible because you could have several businesses on that range and even within the last set. So only uniques would have a series logged to turn off phone verification.

Is Google turning it off per region? That makes sense if they have an algorithm to vary the load being placed on their phone system that accomplishes the task. However, like I have mentioned before - the phone verification is EXTREMELY valuable in google taking on clients for their places service, so I can't see that they want to bypass it in exchange for a slower postcard system. Except, if they are thinking that they only want established and long term business. However, consider how much money they have made on ad-words from people who are not established and are wanting to "start" something. Expendable money from startups (including affiliates who want to just do a redirect to a CB ad - not the smartest but it happens) is just as large as any of the other segments they are selling services to. As much as people think that G hates "make money online" people; they gross millions from it.

So as for the thought that Google is not pleased with offline marketers encouraging people to signup to places - that does not make sense. The only thing I can really think of is that they are putting into place protection from many forms of attack on their system. One example is an injection attack, and the manner in which you complete a places listing sounds very similar to this.

So, am I off here? Does consulting with someone on the phone and getting them to signup themselves not work with your business model?

I have done over 100 new maps. and some are post cards and some are phone calls. I still say it all has to do with how many maps are being made in you area.

I worked on several (6 or 8) google places pages one day last week. All different clients, all different log-ins (their accounts) and the verification on each of them was different. For one client with three different locations, there were two phone verifications and one postcard. For another client with two locations, I was adding the second, they sent a postcard.

I think there are more things involved in what verification google offers than we've figured out so far. My partner is having the same sporadic experience. We just don't know what to expect, but we've found that the phone verification is available, just not all the time.

I'm doing a listing tomorrow from the client's office. Will report back.

TB

That works Teaball...

I have done that... infact that is how I have been getting around this issue. I use thier internet connection and my laptop. I get the initial basics of the information set up right there from them. Then I stop.

I then go back to the lab. Set up the micro format for there address on the website listed, upload the KML, GeoSiteMap, pics, videos, links in the details, etc.

So far I haven't had a problem with the phone verification issue.

There is a way around everything. Sometimes you just have to think outside the box.

It is really very important. its not that google is taking it away, They do this from time to time. If a area is getting alot of maps up lately then they think something is up. so they take away the phone Verification.

This week I had 2 different clients and they both had to be verified snail mail.

1.) Was a entirely new business with a local number. Snail Mail.

2.) Shop with 6 locations, each with local numbers same thing.

Mario,

Seems to be the case for me as well. The last few businesses I have added were via postcard. I am wondering, however, if this is because Google has never found another citation with the associated phone number prior to listing it on Google Places.

Bill

Have never had a System Error on postcard verifications.....


The average on my post card delivery time is about 7-10 days...

I think they just say 2-3 weeks... Just sayin....

Did you refresh the page?


Just curious.

Was just curious... I haven't had this problem. But my first thought was that some people freak out if there is a page load error that is no big deal.

It was a shot in the dark... and I missed....

Thanks!!!!

-Matt

Interesting... reboot... clear cache.... then re submit...


hmmmm

Over the past year I've seen several instances where phone verification is not available. This is nothing new.

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google obviously has its reasons. i assume they suspected manipulation.

Its not just off your IP, MAC ADDress, they look at many things. Big G likes to through a curve ball every now and then too. If you keep getting the post card and not a phone option then change how you are making the listings. If you feel it with keywords or write a " lil about part" the same for every listing then you need to change that up. Big G looks at unique content for every thing that is inputted, so keep that in mind ...

I am looking to hire someone who can do phone verification..

I set up a new listing and received phone verification but I used an aged gmail account. Has anyone seen this same behavior?

Just used new Gmail account and new listing and had a phone verification. All was done for an attorney. No issues at all.

I use gmail, yahoo, hotmail and support @ yoursite.com. What ever the client wants it made with is what I make it with. What email you use has nothing to do with getting a phone verification. I think I will make a blog on how to set up a GP and still get a phone verification. Or I will make a vide, what would you like to see. A blog or a video?

Phone verification can be critical if your clients do not have a physical address that can receive a GP postcard or just don't want to wait weeks for the postcard to arrive.

Lately I have actually seen that ranking and indexing comes much faster through phone verification.

I would be happy to help out warriors who need to phone verify their GP listings.

If you need help you can PM me.

I had this problem for a business in Texas. And it has been a month with no postcard

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