Understanding Google My Business & Local Search
Minor Upgrade to Google Maps iOS App
For a company that now professes to be mobile first Google’s mobile review experience seems opaque and not generally accessible. It’s a Google Maps app only affair and if you are an iPhone user you might not know that. But they are making small strides in the app.
I just downloaded a February 26th update to iOS Google Maps app which has now started to channel Yelp (again) by asking for feedback on specific restaurant features like whether it is good for groups or not:
The app also now notes (like the Android app several months ago) whether a reviewer is part of Google’s Local Guide program:
Update Nick Rink has taken the time to detail all of the questions that Google now asks:
Yep, looks like it pops up only for places that you’ve personally reviewed, and only for restaurant, bar type locations. It seems to ask 3 initial questions and then say “Help Again” which leads to another round of questions. Here’s the full list that I’ve seen so far:
Is this place good for special occasions
Is this place good for groups
Is this place family friendly
Is it quiet here
Is this place good value
Is this place popular for breakfast
Is this place popular for lunch
Is this place popular for dinner
Is there usually a wait here
PS I apologize to Nick for not providing more credit but I am writing and editing this post on my iPhone which tends to limit me somewhat.
Update 3/8
They do also ask two questions on a hotel reviews (so it may be other review types as well):
-is it family friendly?
-is it a good value?
Unlike with restaurant reviews there were no options that I could see for answering more questions than just the two.
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Comments
11 Comments
Nice, but where does that info go? And can I filter a search with that info? This is where Yelp is better, IMO. They have great templates on nearly all businesses addressing the same criteria (free wifi?, accepts credit cards?, free parking?, etc.).
Troy google is the Kirby vacuum of the new millennia. Suck it all in and never spit it out. I assume that it will be used to improve search if it stays around long enough to gather real data.
Nice find, Mike. I’m guessing that info – if Google can collect enough of it – is destined for the KG.
Mike said “google is the Kirby vacuum of the new millennia”. Mike, I love it… that is well said. 😀
I noticed this last week as well when I was at a restaurant I frequent. Thanks for sharing Mike. I totally forgot about it until I saw your post.
As well as the KG this looks like it would fit into the Google Maps “Explore” feature on mobile. Other questions asked are about whether a place is popular for breakfast, lunch & dinner, family friendly … that type of stuff.
@Nick and as filtering options which are currently quite limited. That’s how Yelp uses this data- for more faceted search.
@Nick
They did ask two questions on a hotel review:
-is it family friendly?
-is it a good value?
With no options that I could see for answering more
It was obvious for them to integrate local guide with this review feature. But, Mike, do they have strong inbuilt checks, which yelp has, to prevent spams?
Just got one of these “Is this place a good value? Yes or No” pop-ups while at a Starbucks in my android google maps app. I wouldn’t mind answering these questions. But are my answers going to be publicly identifiable via my google username? Or will this data just be randomly anonymized? (Like the answers you provide in the Google Rewards app). Does anybody know?
@Rockwell
We don’t know exactly how Google is going to use this data. It does appear that it is likely to appear in some anonymized aggregate fashion or perhaps only influence search results rather than show. That’s not a guarantee just my reading of the situation.
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