Last week I wrote an article, Google Places – Reviewer Names No Longer Showing. Feature or Bug?, where I highlighted the fact that reviewer names were not showing on reviews on a business’s Places listing.
I and a number of readers noticed that some names were showing and some were not. I received two reviews yesterday, one with user name and one without, which forced me to dig into the issue more fully:
After some digging (Andy only had one review on Google), I tested what seemed the obvious choice. If the user was publicly showing their name in the profile, the review would show and if they weren’t it wouldn’t.
This review was made on a Google account with no previous reviews that included a public profile & the option to display their name. The review was immediately visible with the reviewers name:
The second review was made on a Google account with no previous reviews in the same time frame, without a public profile and the option deselected to display their name.
Initially it was showing on the Places page without the name but has subsequently disappeared from view. Whether the review will ultimately display on Google Places is not clear. Perhaps it will show up sooner or later or perhaps, Google, like Yelp has started to not show some less trustworthy reviews… That is still to be determined.
The scenario reminded me of a comment made in March by Daniel Tunkelang, a tech lead at Google, in his article about review solicitation:
Still, my hope is that consumers will start placing less stock in the aggregated opinions of anonymous strangers and shift their trust to people who are more transparent about their identities and motives. The more that reviewers stand behind their opinion and put their own integrity on the line, the less it will matter whether those opinions are solicited or spontaneously expressed. We’ll see how the opinion marketplace sorts this out.
Regardless, it seems clear that this move is not a bug in Google Places but rather an intentional change. Minimally, it seems an effort on Google’s part to create a distinction between public and private reviewers. Perhaps though it is more….it remains to be seen whether they are filtering reviews and/or removing them algorithmically for violations.
It appears, that the review game is afoot.
Did you make the review from the same IP? Google clearly monitors your IP because it tells you the IP of the last visitor to log into your Gmail.
If Google blocks multiple reviews from the same IP to the same business that would be a good start to preventing shilling.
Comment by Rocky (10 comments) — November 9, 2010 @ 1:42 pm
I did make it from the same IP address but I made the one that didn’t appear first. So I don’t think (I could be wrong) that it is based on IP address.
Comment by Mike Blumenthal (1962 comments) — November 9, 2010 @ 1:55 pm
Hey! I want that missing review back.
Great sleuthing as always, Mike.
Comment by Cathy (69 comments) — November 9, 2010 @ 4:21 pm
Mike,
You’ve made me scurry over to my own reviewer profile. Now, when I look at the ‘My Account’ page, I see this message:
You don’t yet have a public profile. Learn more
Create a profile or edit your personal info without creating a public profile.
Is this what you mean by making your ‘name’ public?
Obviously, I haven’t selected this, option, but I’m not totally sure that’s the option you mean. Now, my reviews ARE showing up though my screen name is NOT, whether I am signed into Google or not. For the sake of this discussion, I have written more than 100 reviews, so can we estimate from this that there is a certain number at which Google would start showing the reviews of non-public-option persons?
What do you think, and am I understanding what you mean about ‘names’ and ‘public’ correctly?
Comment by MiriamEllis (636 comments) — November 9, 2010 @ 5:14 pm
@Miriam
You are understanding correctly.
Google is not showing names if you don’t in your profile.
There is obviously a point at which reviews for a given reviewer will show up even without names. My test case has not yet played out…. the review might show up over time or might show up if I do a second review.
Comment by Mike (2500 comments) — November 9, 2010 @ 6:19 pm
@Cathy
I entered the review twice just to be sure but it didn’t show up either time. I will wait a few days and then if it doesn’t show up will try a few things…..
@Miriam
They may have grandfathered in previous reviewers or perhaps they show because of volume…. we don’t know yet.
Comment by Mike (2500 comments) — November 9, 2010 @ 6:23 pm
[...] on Responding to Negative Reviews – Your Prospects are the Real AudienceMike (1390 comments) on Google Places – Are Reviews Now Being Filtered?Archives Select Month November 2010 (7) October 2010 (28) September 2010 (15) [...]
Pingback by Google Places: Selective Reviews Now Being Removed | Understanding Google Maps & Local Search — November 10, 2010 @ 9:44 am
[...] Google Places – Are Reviews Now Being Filtered? [...]
Pingback by Google Places: Missing Reviews Have Major Impact for Small Business Owners - Catalyst Local Marketing Blog — November 15, 2010 @ 4:45 pm
It would make sense to me if Google attempted to validate or rank the reviews in order to lend more weight to those most likely to be authentic and devalue the others. PageRank supported by ReviewRank?
Comment by Ewan Kennedy (3 comments) — November 18, 2010 @ 7:35 pm
@Ewan
I think that, or something similar, is what we are seeing.
Comment by Mike (2500 comments) — November 18, 2010 @ 7:52 pm
[...] rollout, newly created reviews from reviewers with non-public Google profiles were having their Places reviews filtered. I tested this by writing a number of reviews, over time and many places in a secondary account. [...]
Pingback by Google Places Now Requiring New “Places Profile” For Reviews | Understanding Google Maps & Local Search — November 21, 2010 @ 12:22 pm
Yeah I think there is for sure a trust rank coming to reviews. If I were to brainstorm off the top of my head on how that trust rank would work….I bet it kinda breaks down like this:
reviewer just rates with hotpot on star system – 1 point
reviewer writes something with hotpot rating – 2 points
reviewer has an enable google profile, writes something – 3 points
reviewer has an enable google profile, writes something, has reviewed before – 4 points
reviewer has an enable google profile, writes something 200 characters or more, has reviewed before, and review comes form local IP address – 5 points
love to hear how other local rockstars think a “review trust rank” would break down (should it exist)…?
I also strongly feel the new local algorithm has shifted a little. I feel they the majority of the weight is now on:
Reviews
Links (now that they have merged Places Pages w/ Websites)
Social Media signals
I see less and less importance to citations. Why do you think this is…?
Comment by matthew hunt (77 comments) — December 22, 2010 @ 4:11 pm
[...] from other sites. It also seems to signal that they think that they are getting their review spam under control….although that remains to be [...]
Pingback by Changes in Google Places and Reviews – What Does it Mean? | Understanding Google Maps & Local Search — July 22, 2011 @ 6:44 am
I have a little problem… can you help me?
One of my customer made a good review. I can see it in my stream, but in my local page it is not displayed. The review is still published and if my customer edit it i can see the post in his stream. But in my local page is still missing.
Any idea?
Here is the post review link.
https://plus.google.com/113843498970995366984/posts/gtVuPDA446h
Comment by Luca (9 comments) — July 10, 2012 @ 4:27 am
PS: My customer account is real and my customer is very active in plus.
Comment by Luca (9 comments) — July 10, 2012 @ 4:35 am