All news with #google maps tag

Google Adds Official MCP Support Across Key Cloud Services

🔌 Google announced fully-managed, remote support for Anthropic's Model Context Protocol (MCP), enabling agents and standard MCP clients to access a unified, enterprise-ready endpoint for Google and Google Cloud services. The managed MCP servers integrate with services like Google Maps, BigQuery, GCE, and GKE to let agents perform geospatial queries, in-place analytics, and infrastructure operations. Built-in discovery, governance, IAM controls, audit logging, and Google Cloud Model Armor provide security and observability. Developers can expose and govern APIs via Apigee and the Cloud API Registry to create discoverable tools for agentic workflows.

Google Adds Maps Form to Report Review Extortion Scams

📍 Google has introduced a dedicated form for businesses on Google Maps to report extortion attempts where threat actors post inauthentic negative reviews and demand payment to remove them. The move targets review bombing schemes that flood profiles with fake one-star reviews and then coerce owners, often via third-party messaging apps. Google also highlighted related threats — from job and AI impersonation scams to malicious VPN apps and fraud recovery cons — and advised practical precautions for affected merchants and users.