In the past few days, people have been trying to figure out if Podesta's Pizza Mansion on Google maps was legitimately put there, or if some troll put it there. I've been reading up on how to add a business to Google maps and it is not as easy or simple as people make it out to be.

(note: this is all assuming that the screen shots themselves weren't fake)

Summary of what I found:

1. Anyone can add anything to Google Maps, but that doesn't mean it will be viewable and searchable to everyone else - it has to actually be reviewed and accepted by Google Map Maker moderators, which can take several weeks.

2. If you want to add a business, you need a Google Business account in order to add verifying information.

3. Even if the moderators accept the business you have added, you don't get to pick if your business will have an icon on Google Maps. If you do get an icon (e.g. the fork and spoon icon meant to signify restaurants), that is something you have no control over, Google picks it based on algorithms that determine what kind of business it is.

Source from Google Support:

The place labels shown on Google Maps are determined algorithmically based on a large number of factors. One factor these algorithms consider is the accuracy of the business information and the richness of the content associated with the business.

Verifying your business improves the chances that your business will display with a place label.

Note that business accuracy and Google being able verify the information are important factors.

You can go to the Google support pages about this subject and see pages of people complaining that their businesses are not on the map or showing up with an icon, and the moderators will ask them to verify their businesses.

You must be getting a generic POI/Establishment Place label icon, usually Google Local algorithms is good enough to determine the type of icon, based on the categories used, but sometimes it makes mistakes or take a long time to assign the proper icon.

Could you please provide your business details to investigate and see if we can offer any suggestions

URL of the public Local listing:

Business name (as it is in your account):

Business location: Street address, City, State/Province, Country

Business telephone (as it is in your account):

Business category (e.g. hospital, etc.): Website:

So as you can see above, first your business needs to be reviewed and approved by moderators, and after you have been approved, to ensure your business gets an icon, you need to provide some actual information that Google can verify either automatically or that moderators can later verify manually.

This makes me wonder how Podesta's Pizza Mansion was accepted, and how it got an icon? If it got the icon automatically, how did Google's algorithms approve of the searchable label and icon, given that it's in the middle of no where and there is no evidence of it being a real place?

I'm not saying that Podesta's Pizza Mansion is real. It could still be a troll. I just wanted to point out that it is not as easy to add a place as others have been claiming it to be.

edit: fixed wrong URL and made the information easier to understand.