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TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 24, 2009
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Google Wants You To Map Businesses

Search giant will hire everyone to collect data at $10 a pop

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(Newser) – Google is hiring—and you don't even need to know html. The search giant wants locals to visit pizza joints, ice cream parlors, drugstores, and other businesses as part of a Herculean effort to build a commerce database. An army of freelancers will collect the data, snap a digital photo, and then send it to Google for $10 a pop, reports InfoCommerce.

Virtually anyone will be able to "work" for Google; all you need is a digital camera, passion for the web, and a legitimate W-9. InfoCommerce points out a few foreseeable problems: a contractor won't get paid if the biz has already been scoped out which could lead to mass confusion and irritation, and once data is gathered, maintaining it over time will prove onerous.

The sun shines over Google campus.
The sun shines over Google campus.   (Getty Images)
Two women walk past a Google sign at the Google campus in Mountain View, Calif., Tuesday, July 17, 2007. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)
Two women walk past a Google sign at the Google campus in Mountain View, Calif., Tuesday, July 17, 2007. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)   (Associated Press)
Google co-founder and president Sergey Brin, left, chats with photographers as Sony Corp. chairman and CEO Howard Stringer, right background, talks with a television crew at the annual Allen and Co.'s media conference Thursday, July 12, 2007, in Sun Valley, Idaho. (AP Photo/Douglas C. Pizac)
Google co-founder and president Sergey Brin, left, chats with photographers as Sony Corp. chairman and CEO Howard Stringer, right background, talks with a television crew at the annual Allen and Co.'s...   (Associated Press)
Google looks for a way to organize local business information.
Google looks for a way to organize local business information.   (KRT Photos)
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