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Google Might Be Hiding the Fact That Its Own Reviews Are Shoddy (yahoo.com)
Google appears to have quietly purged its own user-generated review content from its search results. From a report: This is significant, critics of Google say, because it obscures the fact that Google's search engine judges the company's own reviews poorly. Google's search engine ranks content by relevance and quality, and Google's review content previously showed up deep into the search results, far from the first page of links that takes most of the clicks. A Google spokesperson disagreed that the review content was "de-indexed," simply noting that because Google reviews don't currently live on a web page, they are not displayed as web results.
Given that reviews once showed up in regular Google search results and now do not, it follows that the reviews were moved from a web page to the Maps platform, whose code prevents search engines from crawling it. What was once searchable is now not searchable, something Google did not explain. As a result, Google reviews do not have to rank highly in search engines. Instead, the Google snippet -- the map and reviews box above the standard search result -- allows the company to capture clicks that would otherwise flow off the platform to whatever website had the best result in the algorithm made by the search team down the hall at Mountain View deemed as the best.
Given that reviews once showed up in regular Google search results and now do not, it follows that the reviews were moved from a web page to the Maps platform, whose code prevents search engines from crawling it. What was once searchable is now not searchable, something Google did not explain. As a result, Google reviews do not have to rank highly in search engines. Instead, the Google snippet -- the map and reviews box above the standard search result -- allows the company to capture clicks that would otherwise flow off the platform to whatever website had the best result in the algorithm made by the search team down the hall at Mountain View deemed as the best.
We know you've got 'em, it's time to verify the trust we've placed in that laughing fat man.
Who knew or cared that Google Review text was actually searchable in the first place. Probably only the people at Yelp.
Reviews are supposed to give me some reliability whether something is good or bad... ... by having reviewers say if they find it good or bad.
But even by that logic, we still need somebody to review those reviewers!
And so on...
And just like with "Who watches the watchmen?", the final answer is always: YOU! (Or me, in my case.)
It's a trust network. And trust comes from experience. We call those people friends. (Or enemies, if they are reliably suggesting the opposite of what’s good.)
You could trust friends' friends too, but that quickly succumbs not only to the Chinese whispers effect, but also to friends not matching their friends' views a 100%.
Additionally, reviewers are NOT equal to people. Reviewers are merely user accounts or IP addresses. So there is a n:n relationship between reviewers and people. Unless you make them log in with a verified passport or even more extreme stuff. (In Germany, if you want to activate a bought SIM card online, they actually use a video verification system, where you video-chat with a real person. Security theater level: TSA.)
That is why I use adblock, to filter all review sections, stars and thumb up/down displays on websites. I only trust suggestions of people that I personally know well.
What needs explaining? Google wanted its review content to not be scraped by every two-bit fly-by-night review aggregator out there, so they took their content away and hid it in maps. They've been pushing their maps contributions feature especially hard lately; if you have location history enabled, you get a request to review pretty much every place you've been. Obviously they are hard up for content for that feature.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
The summary doesn't do a very good job of explaining what is a "Google review". I had to go to TFA to understand what it's about!
So I'll spoil it : a "Google review" is a review on Google Maps of a particular place like hotel, restaurant or chiropractor. (if you're like me you'll look at joke reviews of places like concentration camps)
This for non Google users, if there are a few left on this board.
... and they get exactly what they pay for.
Instead, the Google snippet -- the map and reviews box above the standard search result -- allows the company to capture clicks that would otherwise flow off the platform to whatever website had the best result in the algorithm made by the search team down the hall at Mountain View deemed as the best.
Did an early version of AI write this shit?
Didn't know where to put this on any "map", but I needed support to create a re-install SD card for my chromebook. I only have Linux. The people on the google forum page for chromebooks kept trying to tell me to use a Windows PC. I don't have a Windows PC. They told me to borrow one.
Unacceptable.
Creating a boot USB/SDHC device **is** 100% supported by Google. I'd found the page describing how to do it, but it wasn't working.
The google support people chose what they thought was the best answer and closed the thread as SOLVED.
Bullshit.
It wasn't solved and their "answer" wasn't any answer.
After a week of trying to figure it out, I finally found some snippet somewhere that said I couldn't search by the vendor name or machine model, but that I was supposed to know some "code name" for the OS build. What the FUCK! For that machine, I was supposed to know to type in "GANDOF" - I kid you know. "Toshiba" is the vendor, but that never worked.
What bullshit.
Fuckers need to reopen the thread and provide the "best fucking answer."
They were a bunch of dicks.
I owned a Nexus 4 phone. Loved it for the 18 months it got OS updates, then they stopped. And it became very hackable. On an overseas trip, I tried to get a local SIM, but it would never activate at the Cellular store. The clerk said that some devices just don't work - and this was basically THE Android device at the time and had been for over a year.
Oddly, about a week later, I received an automated invitation from google to join their Experts team. From that point on, I've avoided using any google stuff. They clearly have no idea about the level of hatred that exists for their "support" and other services.
Ah ... now I get why google has hidden their reviews. Because they don't want reviews like mine for their support teams (who aren't paid) to be seen.
They sell the sizzle, not the steak.
here. Give a look also to the google reviews of the Marianna trench...
Clearly Google is manipulating search results by (checks notes) demoting their own results in the rankings.