What to do About Wrong Information That Has Propagated Throughout the Internet

Question

Many years ago, someone made an entry into Yahoo! Maps for our small research library that contained the phone number of our librarian.

Hundreds of sites accepted this information as authoritative and have spread it throughout the internet, including: Bing, Google, Yelp, YellowPages, WhitePages, and CitySearch.

The problem is that this research library is not our primary business. In fact, it is a very small group within a very large organization. Somehow, her phone number is as popular (possibly moreso!) than our main line. The librarian spends a fair chunk of her day routing calls intended for the rest of the institute.

What would you do in this situation?

I have recommended that we redirect the librarian's phone to the front desk and have her change her number, but she has had the same number since 1997 and is reluctant to change.

In late 2009, I tried updating the info with Yahoo, Google and Bing. All three removed the reference library from their listings, but have since put it back.

Are there services that fight internet disinformation?

Answer 1

Try to reach the source from where these search engines are picking up information. It might be the case that even after getting removed from main site, search-engines are updating it from other sources.

I recommend you better update the phone number instead of removing it. Request these sites individually to update your phone number. It will be permanent solution and you won't lose the business either.