Reporter Recounts a Quirk in Google's Search Algorithm That Resulted in His Phone Number Getting Listed as Facebook's Customer Support (vice.com) 49
Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai, writing for Vice's Motherboard: I'm waiting for the subway when the phone rings. On the other end of the line an angry woman is shouting at me about her Facebook account. I hang up. A few hours later, I'm walking to get some lunch when someone calls. "I forgot my Facebook password," the man says. I sigh, and -- once again -- explain that I can't help. [...] This keeps happening. In the last three days, I've gotten more than 80 phone calls. Just today, in the span of eight minutes, I got three phone calls from people looking to talk to Facebook. I didn't answer all of them, and some left voicemails.
Initially, I thought this was some coordinated trolling campaign. As it turns out, if you Googled "Facebook phone number" on your phone earlier this week, you would see my cellphone as the fourth result, and Google has created a "card" that pulled my number out of the article and displayed it directly on the search page in a box. The effect is that it seemed like my phone number was Facebook's phone number, because that is how Google has trained people to think. Considering that on average, according to Google's own data, people search for "Facebook phone numberâ tens of thousands of times every month, I got a lot of calls.
Initially, I thought this was some coordinated trolling campaign. As it turns out, if you Googled "Facebook phone number" on your phone earlier this week, you would see my cellphone as the fourth result, and Google has created a "card" that pulled my number out of the article and displayed it directly on the search page in a box. The effect is that it seemed like my phone number was Facebook's phone number, because that is how Google has trained people to think. Considering that on average, according to Google's own data, people search for "Facebook phone numberâ tens of thousands of times every month, I got a lot of calls.
Denmark would like you to know (Score:1, Offtopic)
The Prime Minister of Denmark would like you to know something about the Scandanavian countries:
"I know that some people in the US associate the Nordic model with some sort of socialism. Therefore I would like to make one thing clear. Denmark is far from a socialist planned economy. Denmark is a market economyâ
https://www.thelocal.dk/201511... [thelocal.dk]
See also
https://www.forbes.com/sites/j... [forbes.com]
You could make this more fun (Score:5, Funny)
"I forgot my Facebook password"
> Just set up a new account with your username spelled backwards. Facebook will connect that to your old account.
"Is Facebook down? I can't log in"
> Yes we turned off Facebook today. Everybody should spend more time outdoors and less time on their phones.
He should monetize this. (Score:1)
Contract with someone who will play an ad before the call connects. he might as well make money off of this.
Wrong Number (Score:5, Funny)
I used to have a phone number that was similar to the one used for a particular newspaper's customer service number. Anyway, the first few days I got those calls about missing newspaper deliveries, I would direct them to the correct number to dial.
By the time a few weeks had passed, I was promising the callers I'd have the paperboy flogged.
Re: (Score:2)
But outdoors is overrated. Actually, some people still use Facebook outside too! :)
Great! (Score:2)
OTOH, decades ago we kept getting orders to a grocery store. Complained to no avail. Eventually we took a very large order and told them it would be delivered ASAP. Soon after the business changed their call-in number -- or at least we never got any more calls. Try that.
Why call? (Score:2)
Re: (Score:1)
Facebook is for old people that is why.
Re: (Score:3)
What I'm fascinated by (at the moment) is that you never heard of customer support that indeed help people with account related problems. Perhaps not at Facebook (I wouldn't know) but in other internet based companies.
Re:Why call? (Score:5, Insightful)
Facebook has customer support - email, chat and live operators too. The thing you have to realize though is that Facebook users are not Facebook customers. Support is available for advertisers and other paying customers. This is no different than slaughter houses having customer support for paying customers, but not for the cattle. Just like cattle in slaughter houses, Facebook users are the product.
Re: (Score:2)
This is no different than slaughter houses having customer support for paying customers, but not for the cattle. Just like cattle in slaughter houses, Facebook users are the product.
In incredibly one sided view that ignores the reality of multi-faceted businesses. Do the cows voluntarily sign up for a slaughterhouse? Can they choose to leave the slaughterhouse and go play outside? Do slaughterhouses need to keep the cows happy in order to sell meat to other customers?
Facebook is nothing more than a bank, a clearing house for a currency. You the person pays for a service with information. That information is sold for cash. That doesn't make you a product any more than you are the produc
Re: (Score:2)
We worked on an ad for a Big-3-Tech-Company product launch. We of course posted it on our website as part of our demo reel. Someone found the video, decided we must have made the product too , looked up our phone number in our contact us page and asked us how to upload a new file to their device.
Some people are also just very very dumb.
Facebook does have a customer support phone number (Score:5, Informative)
Re: (Score:1)
By that you mean the advertisers. Not the users, we're the product.
Re:Facebook does have a customer support phone num (Score:5, Informative)
That's what he said: customers.
This is bad (Score:2)
Also, has anyone seen Google's newfangled E-mail write "assistant"? That goddamned thing is the most annoying and pointless piece of shit seen since Microsoft Office's Clippy. It keeps rewriting my e-mails to what it thinks I should write rather than what I want to write.
Re: (Score:1)
It doesn't actually rewrite them; it only suggests phrases. You can still continue typing what you intend, but you have to learn to ignore the Google Clippy phrases as you do so.
So yes, I have seen this newfangled misfeature. I hate it, too.
Re: (Score:2)
The "assistant" is so annoying (it is Clippy bad, maybe even worse) that it motivated me to find out how to shut it off in minutes. No, I didn't try to hunt through the poorly designed controls. I Googled it.
Re: (Score:2)
Also, has anyone seen Google's newfangled E-mail write "assistant"? That goddamned thing is the most annoying and pointless piece of shit seen since Microsoft Office's Clippy. It keeps rewriting my e-mails to what it thinks I should write rather than what I want to write.
It makes suggestions. You can use a suggestion by hitting Tab (kind of like autocomplete in a programming environment), or you can just keep typing.
You can also just turn it off.
Hyacinth! (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
"No, this is not the Chinese takeaway ... "
Why? Just take the order.
Details From the Article (Score:5, Informative)
It's not like it's completely some bizarre coincidence. They are a writer for Vice and include their phone number under their name to receive story tips. And they literally wrote an article with a headline starting with the words "Facebook's Phone Number...". It's not even that surprising.
Artificial Ignorance (Score:1)
The question is... (Score:2)
Was your number published by Vice.*/motherboard/article/kzdxjx/F??? or did the algo just assume published digits were a phone number?
Actually, the article lacks important context such as the user locale and exact query used to produce the result page. I doubt the result page was displayed to the majority of users issuing the query. Not good, but without context quite possibly FUD.
YOU FOOL!! (Score:2)
You fool, you wasted a PERFECT opportunity to screw with these ninnies!
You should have told them, "Um, yeah, we're having some issues. What we need you to do is completely delete your account, and it'll be automatically recreated in 24 hours, good as new. Just be patient while it's regenerated."
Or better yet, tell them that they've "exceeded the normal usage limits", and to use Facebook they'll now need to pay $39.99 per month for access. Of course, if they would delete all but 25 of their photos they would
Re: (Score:2)
Or better yet, tell them that they've "exceeded the normal usage limits", and to use Facebook they'll now need to pay $39.99 per month for access.
"Ok, can I give you my credit card number?"