More threads by JoyHawkins

JoyHawkins

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Dr Pete from Moz just tweeted this

I tried a few searches that show the photo 3-pack (wedding djs, campgrounds) and can't replicate it. Can any of you?

Mini reviews.jpg

Mini reviews.jpg
 
I checked out the profile of the guy who left the review that got featured. He's not a Local Guide and has written 3 reviews for other guitar shops in the area so I'm wondering if Google is using that at all as a reason to chose his review to feature. Oddly his review isn't even in the top 5 "most helpful" reviews on this listing.

I see a LOT of potential for this to go south. Imagine you are this business:
Review Snippit Gone Bad.png

Review Snippit Gone Bad.png
 
Nope. I tried a few different searches with and without geo and using different locations and I can't replicate it at all. Just review stars, but no snippets.

And I have to agree that if this somehow becomes the norm, it could be a potential pitfall.
 
I checked out the review for the other business and this guy had only left 1 review so I'm guessing Google is probably using some other criteria to decide which review to feature.

I would hope they look at ones from people who have physically visited the store (based on Google's ability to track via smart phones).
 
Definitely not showing up in Australia (not that I expected it to ;) )

Interesting investigative results Joy - if they do end up going down this path, then yes it would be nice to have some 'weight' behind the chosen review (Local Guide, physically visited the location, uploaded a photo, identified as most helpful, etc etc) rather than randomly selected.
 
Since they already show reviews in some cases in the KG, is this really all that different? the only big deal is *WHICH* review(s) they choose to display. In both places, actually.
 
Hi Tm,

That's actually the biggest issue I have with this new feature. Review snippets cause quite a bit of grief already, due to the lack of control over which review is used and arbitrary choice of words - such as using different parts of the same review to make up different snippets, or even taking a phrase out of context so that a positive becomes a negative ("No-one understood my problem like the experts at Guitar City" becomes "No-one understood my problem..." for example).

Unless there's a bit more weight behind the reviews chosen for this feature, then I see the same problems coming up for business owners.
 
..Review snippets cause quite a bit of grief already, due to the lack of control over which review is used and arbitrary choice of words...or even taking a phrase out of context so that a positive becomes a negative...

Unless there's a bit more weight behind the reviews chosen for this feature, then I see the same problems coming up for business owners.

Yes, I agree. Since it's Google's "house", they get to make the rules, no matter how arbitrary or ill-conceived. It seems like the best defense here is to work hard to encourage postings of authentic favorable reviews, no?
 

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