Google Employee Stephan S has just posted this in the Places Forum post to report “missing” reviews confirming that Google has started to remove reviews (bold is mine):
As mentioned in this forum previously, we’re currently experiencing an issue that is preventing us from showing some reviews on Place pages. We’re working to correct this issue as soon as possible, and apologize for the inconvenience and frustration this has caused some of you.
However, please remember that there are various reasons why reviews may not appear. We’re continuing to do our best to ensure that the reviews in our system are legitimate and high-quality. To protect both business owners and customers, we have systems in place that may remove individual reviews, and with the revised review policies we released a few months ago (see below) we have taken a stronger stance against spam and other forms of abuse. So while some of you are seeing less reviews because of the aforementioned error, many of you are experiencing removed reviews because they have been removed by our systems. We acknowledge that sometimes our algorithms may flag and remove legitimate reviews in our effort to combat abuse, but believe that overall, these measures are helping to ensure that the reviews appearing on Place pages are authentic, relevant and useful.
References:
Review Posting Guidelines & Policy (Help Articles)
Google has finally released a public statement about their stance on reviews. It is not clear to me, as David Mihm pointed out, that they have either the PR machinery or customer support structure in place to deal with the coming fury….
Here are some other recent articles that have dealt with the review issues on Google Places…
Last week I noted that Google was no longer showing some reviewers names: Google Places – Reviewer Names No Longer Showing. Feature or Bug?
From Wednesday: Google Places – Are Reviews Now Being Filtered?
Thursday: Google Places: Selective Reviews Now Being Removed
In aggregate these indicate a huge shift in policy for Google. Previously they allowed ALL review information into Places with no concern for quality of the review or the reviewer.
I hope this is a sign they are getting better at identifying SPAM reviews. They appear to have gone awry in this area.
However, a few months back I noticed one of my past client’s reviews drop significantly. When I was working with him I told him to solicit reviews from his best clients, but like many, he took the easy route and supposedly submitted them on behalf of his clients. They all took at first, and jumped him way up on the map, but then after a few months many of them went away. I noticed this with several other businesses around this time to.
Comment by Wes (10 comments) — November 10, 2010 @ 4:56 pm
Hi Wes
Obviously, they are still rookies at the game. But they are quick learners and screwing up in reviews will provide them lots of feedback very quickly on where they are going wrong. Take a look at some of the comments immediately after Google posted…
I assume, that like the new organo local blended results, they have been testing this for quite some time… you can probably nail the exact date of the rollout by the volume of complaints in the forums.
Comment by Mike (2500 comments) — November 10, 2010 @ 5:04 pm
Anybody else noticing TripAdvisor reviews are gone? A few hotels in Boston no longer show them aggregated, but the total number of reviews has stayed. TripAdvisor? Really?
Also, having problems with reviews listed that do not belong to my client’s event venue. They have 2 very negative reviews about past events, but Google is listing them for the venue.
Comment by Lauren R (21 comments) — November 10, 2010 @ 5:09 pm
@Lauren
The most recent issues with 3rd party reviews are being mentioned frequently in the forums… there is a long history of Google, usually for only 24-72 hours, loosing 3rd party reviews.
Any more, I just figure it is part of the landscape and architecture of Google Places and that they will return.
Comment by Mike (2500 comments) — November 10, 2010 @ 5:18 pm
Honestly, I cant imagine how an algo would detect a real review from a spammed one. Many people who have been asked by their vendor take the time to write a review will most likely write a very detailed and flattering review. I would imagine that such a review could and would be flagged as spam in this landscape, but would not be. Now the review will be considered guilty if it is eloquent and detailed. In my opinion I think Google should pay less attention to this, and let the intelligence of the individuals determine that for themselves. I see many third party review sites that have very detailed reviews that are written by honest people looking to lend a helping hand, but yet there is nothing to be gained by virtue of internet visibility. Those same well written reviews will mostly likely now be flagged by Google, but will most likely be allowed as a third pary review. There is no way that an algo can detect the intent of the reviewer, without hurting innocent bystanders along the way, and thus ruin the process in the meantime. I think that Google goes too far on many fronts while trying to protect the so called integrity of the search, and they are soon going to make it impossible for the any small business to excel in this internet marketplace, and just like in all facets of life, the rich will get richer. It is the concept that even the little guy or girl with a little hard work enhancing their relevancy on the internet will lead to increase exposure, that drives people’s interest in Google in the first place. They need us as much as we need them. I think sometimes they lose sight of that. It is my view that if you take the fucntion away from the average person, then eventually there will be less interest by people, which could open the door to ther other search engines. Just one mans opinion. I really enjoy your insight and look to your blog everyday to see what is new and exciting in the world of local SEO. Thank-you for doing what you do.
Comment by David (32 comments) — November 10, 2010 @ 7:35 pm
So I had 89 review two weeks ago, then I had no reviews, then I had 2 reviews. I have since received another 3 reviews.
Google has perhaps perceived my reviews to be of poor quality, too hastily arrived at (18 mths?) or highly distorted in terms of the number of reviews my longer established competitors have achieved. Or of course a combination of all these things, plus 10 other random issues pulled from the Google bag.
I have lots of unique customers every week, do a great job at a very low price….. so in my case reviews fill the credibility void facing a low price offering. Overnight they are wiped, but the difficulty is in understanding why and arriving at a new review gathering strategy? You see if you don’t feel that you have done anything wrong, you sort of struggle with this.
If I have done nothing wrong, marketed well to my clients and got them to write a review (however bad Google feels those individuals may be as review writers) what should I do next time around? I have in effect learnt nothing, other than the fact that Google one day may wipe them out in a subjective whimsical action. (Coincidentally hat I also struggle with is the fact that newer customers cannot find my write a review link on my places page (neither at times can I) as it appears to regularly have disappeared over the last few weeks.)
If I re-contact all those individuals who have written me a review that has been wiped / frozen / put into solitary confinement, what will they find on their account… will the review still be there. If I ask them to write me a new review what will happen? If they have as a consequence of writing me a review, developed bad review credit, how long does that last for and when (if ever) will they be able to write me another review?
You see the point is, I don’t understand the way forward. I followed a strategy, I gained reviews and have no idea how I should approach review gathering differently? I’m not sure I have learnt anything more than thems the breaks!
Does it make me want to do anything differently… no, I suppose I’ll just do the same again and see where we go.
Comment by Adrian Cameron (12 comments) — November 10, 2010 @ 8:53 pm
I know that I have seen posts relative to this subject, but I am perplexed as to why G has decided to remove the identity of “Reviews by Google users”. Prior to the removal, it was quite easy to identify review spam. For example, A car dealership review in Maine and a hotel review in Las Vegas on the same day, just to name a few…Now it is nearly impossible. Why would G do this. Did they not like users reporting review spam on the forums and elsewhere? Very odd. Any theories???
Comment by dana (2 comments) — November 10, 2010 @ 9:25 pm
@David
Thanks for the nod.
There are number of signals that Google could use to tag reviews as spam… at this point, we don’t really know what they are…
@Adrian
Google said:
we’re currently experiencing an issue that is preventing us from showing some reviews on Place pages. We’re working to correct this issue as soon as possible, and apologize for the inconvenience and frustration this has caused some of you.
So while it is always time to THINK about review strategies moving forward it is too early to come to any conclusions (or loose any sleep). I think it is time for a pause, wait and see which reviews come back, which were deemed as spam and why and then make a decision.
@Dana
I have two theories..
1)Privacy -if a user did NOT make his or her name public, then Google might feel obligated to respect that
or
2)Perhaps they feel that those users without public profiles should be deemed as less trustworthy and readers will understand that…
I lean towards 1) but who knows?
Comment by Mike (2500 comments) — November 10, 2010 @ 9:37 pm
[...] CommentsMike (1397 comments) on Google Places: Google Confirms New Review Removal Practicesdana (2 comments) on Google Places: Google Confirms New Review Removal PracticesAdrian Cameron (6 [...]
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