this post was submitted on 17 Mar 2025
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374
Google Hijacks Restaurants Booking System Leading To No Reservations Being Available. (www.seroundtable.com)
submitted 2 days ago by Tea@programming.dev to c/technology@lemmy.world
29 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Imagine you own a restaurant and you get all your reservations online through your booking system; you even tell people to book online when they call, via an automated message. But then, all of a sudden, Google decides to hijack that booking link and replace it with Google Assistant's calling feature.

So instead of Google linking to the booking system you selected, let's say OpenTable booking integration. Now Google uses Google Assistant to try to call the restaurant and speak to a person. But no person will answer the call, the call goes to a message to tell people to book online. So the next thing that happens is that Google gives up calling, thinks there are no reservations available and tells those trying to book online that there are no reservations available.

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[โ€“] zout@fedia.io 40 points 2 days ago (2 children)

These all require someone to actually pick up the phone, instead of playing an automated message.

[โ€“] Microplasticbrain@lemm.ee 11 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Because many third part services require a phone number and will post that phone number around without permission.

I have a restaurant and we don't offer phone service at all, phone goes to voicemail which tells you to send an email or order online.

I posted the number nowhere, but guess what, apple maps requires a phone number, uber grubhub dd require phone numbers, and lo and behold my fucking pos was posting the number on my website without my permission and gave me no way to remove it until I called repeatedly and complained, but even then it still pops back up sometimes.

Edit sorry I replied to the wrong person and im too lazy to change it ๐Ÿ˜ฌ

[โ€“] Atherel@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 1 day ago

You can have both.

Welcome to restaurant. For reservations please visit our website on restaurant.com. For any other requests, please hold the line.