Update 1/22/09: Reviews are back in the Local 10 Pack once again
It appears that over the past 48 hours Google has rolled out a tweak to the Local 10 Pack layout that removes the number of reviews and the link to the reviews in Maps and simply has the More link on all listings.
Here is a search today on Florists near Brooklyn:
Here is a screen shot for the same search from September 2008
Good catch, Mike.
The 10 pack is a little busy. I think a little less data upfront might actually be an improvement.
Miriam
Comment by MiriamEllis (636 comments) — January 20, 2009 @ 8:43 pm
Yes, I had heard from a florist that a number of the other florists were somewhat frustrated by this turn of events because they had worked so hard to accumulate reviews and they felt that it conferred a certain visual authority that led to more calls and clicks….
I would love to see the click thru stats on the previous 10-pack as to whether sites with reviews had more click thrus or not…
But in the end Google giveth and Google taketh away….
Mike
Comment by Mike (2500 comments) — January 20, 2009 @ 9:25 pm
Well in this way they put less emphasize on the reviews and thus making them less vulnerable to spam.
Or no?
Comment by Martijn beijk (59 comments) — January 21, 2009 @ 4:34 am
@Martijn
I would agree that it reduces the temptation to spam them. Whether that was Google’s motivation is unclear….
Mike
Comment by Mike (2500 comments) — January 21, 2009 @ 8:46 am
while you may think this reduces spam, professional/personal reviews do help the floral industry in many instances. for example, a hotly debated topic amongst florists is competing with 1-800 numbers that claim they ARE “flower shops” yet only gather orders only to send them through wire services to local florists taking huge percentages of the orders leaving the little business guy with the crumbs. true flower shops need these reviews in the battle for the buck.
Comment by sharon brannigan (1 comments) — January 21, 2009 @ 10:14 am
Hi Sharon
Thanks for stopping by. I am in no way, suggesting one is better than the other and I am sure that the loss of “visual authority” hurts business.
We are trying to understand firstly what Google did, secondly why they did it and thirdly what does it mean and what impact will it have going forward.
Google being a black box is difficult to “deconstruct” as all we have are the outward manifestations of it.
They have a different view than you or I and their goals serve them not me or you. We do know that they user test these changes before they implement them, we also know that they are often unaware of the full implications of their actions.
I am curious if you have been able to quantify the value of having the reviews in the 10 Pack? IE how many fewer clicks do you receive from your position in the 10 Pack?
Mike
Comment by Mike (2500 comments) — January 21, 2009 @ 12:03 pm