Comments on: Google Maps: Now Adding Reviews from News Sites, Hyperlocal Blogs and Other Non Traditional Review Sources

By: matthew

matthew — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 19:40:21 +0000

It’s just that simple, huh? So anyone with a blog in blogger can write a review about a business and as long as they add a phone and/or address + your business name and it should then technically get picked up your places page’s listing, right?

By: Mike

Mike — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 17:13:19 +0000

When Google finds a phone number it becomes a citations and when they find “positive sentiment”, they are able to associate it as a review

By: matthew

matthew — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 16:46:49 +0000

yeah sure, check out listing:

notice it pulling reviews from: http://www.blogto.com/grocery/n/34/scarborough

and blogger: http://www.katcanrawr.com/2009/11/sea-urchin-roe-fresh-from-dianas.html

By: Mike

Mike — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 16:18:03 +0000

@Mathew

Can you show me some examples?

By: matthew

matthew — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 16:15:12 +0000

Mike,

I am seeing a lot of “sentiment analysis” showing up again, mostly reviews pulled from blogs on blogspot.

Do you know what triggers Google Places to find these reviews?

It does seem a little dangerious once spammers figure out how to exploit this, no?

By: Mike

Mike — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 07:34:46 +0000

Well the fact that they are showing as a citation means that Google recognizes that the blog posts are in fact about a specific business. As long as you are careful not to use review specific language with particular sentiments like value, service and ambiance you are probably safe….

By: Steve G

Steve G — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 06:12:32 +0000

I blog a lot about lawyers when they are running for elected office. I just checked all these lawyers’ Google Places sites, and my blog posts are not showing up as “reviews.” My blog posts are showing up below in the “more about this place section”. If my blog posts showed up as “reviews” on law offices, I would probably change my blogging practices. Political candidates are fair game, but i am not targeting their practices.

By: Andrew Rayner

Andrew Rayner — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 22:39:38 +0000

Great article with some very useful insights and practical examples to enhance the power of reviews in Google places – Thanks Mike

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Sun, 09 Jan 2011 15:44:03 +0000

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By: Mike

Mike — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 01:29:47 +0000

@gracey
No