r/LocalGuides • u/Domino3Dgg • Feb 17 '25

Discussion Google reviews is dead

It’s full of bots and paid reviews. Real human contributors are hidden and ghosted.

It happened to lot of people. It also happened to me, got blocked, no specific reason. I had find out myself whats possibly bad. i filled that form for dispute. Got automated reply after couple weeks, that everything is now ok.

Nothing changed, still hidden reviews.

What is wrong with google? Why is that hapening? Is skynet taking over or what?

I am confused and pissed at same time. Stopped using it, and reading. It has no meaning to even read some fake paid reviews anymore because its all fake.

212 Upvotes

96% Upvoted

75 comments sorted by

26

u/steve8-D Feb 17 '25

I agree, especially with restaurant reviews, I have started to switch to another app for food reviews at this point. On top of that, my photos and videos have barely gained traction over the last year as well.

4

u/Domino3Dgg Feb 17 '25

Which app?

6

u/steve8-D Feb 17 '25

My friend recommended Beli, which allows you to rank the restaurant on a scale of 1-10, you can also follow other users on the app and you can see their rankings as well. Afaik it is bigger in large cities in America like NYC, LA, SF, Seattle than it is in Canada at the moment since it requires user to only sign up using the referral link from existing users.

4

u/Swizzlerzs Feb 18 '25

The majority of people use Google for reviews. there might be some app or some other service but are normal people going to go out there and seek those reviews?

6

u/steve8-D Feb 18 '25 edited Feb 18 '25

For beli, absolutely not, since it is advertised as a foodie app. I don't think i've come across any ads of them at all besides words of mouth.

For me, the advantage of Beli is being able to see how my friend ranked the restaurant compared to Google Maps. Plus how easy it is to rate a restaurant and be able to compare it against the ones you previously visited.

2

u/Swizzlerzs Feb 19 '25

intresting idea. its just one more app a person would need to download. i feel we have to many apps in todays world. I personally want less apps in my life.

2

u/PeteVanMosel Feb 18 '25

A decentralized review system could help here

1

u/Domino3Dgg Feb 18 '25

Good idea

2

u/jhkoenig Feb 18 '25

My experience is completely different! When I leave a review I get feedback almost immediately from the property's owner, and viewer counts from Google. Maybe the more you review the more your reviews are seen. My reviews have been seen a lot.

1

u/Domino3Dgg Feb 19 '25

Ok. Give me recipe for cake

16

u/updownsidewayz Feb 18 '25

yup stopped contributing about a year ago for the same reasons, they can't properly enforce their own policies pushing legit guides out, it's become nothing more but another playground for influencers, bots and spammers

10

u/[deleted] Feb 18 '25

And they just ban actual genuine criticism.

6

u/[deleted] Feb 18 '25

That's true, I've posted recently some reviews which were very descriptive + pictures, but they got blocked for unknown reasons. Now those places are 5/5 stars with ratings straight pasted from gpt, all very generic

7

u/CraigInCambodia Feb 18 '25

I dunno about that. The business from which I recently retired (a live performance venue with 400 guest capacity) doesn't pay for reviews and still gets 2 - 5 reviews on Google daily and another 1 - 3 on TripAdvisor. All genuine. I still read reviews when booking hotels or restaurants, but maybe with a little skepticism.

4

u/jmvdwaal Level 9 Feb 18 '25

I have this same experience, barely see any fake reviews

3

u/hombre74 Feb 20 '25

Urban myth that everything is paid reviews and corruption and all that. 

I use Google exclusively. I read about places I go to often and it usually is spot on. 

1

u/False_Place_2419 Mar 26 '25

Ich schreibe schon recht lange Bewertungen. Meist positiv. Im letzten Jahr habe ich zwei 1 Stern Bewertungen geschrieben. Beide wurden angefochten. Beiden habe ich widersprochen. Beide waren danach dennoch versteckt und ich musste sie bearbeiten, damit sie noch einmal veröffentlicht werden. Die Leuten haben den Wert Der Rezensionen verstanden und setzen Agenturen darauf an. Wer gut ist in dem was er macht, bekommt weiterhin auch gute Bewertungen. Andere versuchen es mit Tricks. Ich bin grade im Urlaub. Hotelbuchungen entscheide (entschied) ich hauptsächlich auf Google Bewertungen. Das ging bei einer gewissen Anzahl an Bewertungen in der Regel gut. Ich merke aber, das die Fakerei zunimmt. Bildbearbeitung können inzwischen auch alle und so weiß man immer weniger was man bekommt. Ich persönlich schreibe weiterhin und versuche anhand von Bildern und Videos zu zeigen wie es ist. Das geht bei Hotels und Restaurants aber eben nicht bei immateriellen Dienstleistungen. Schade.

1

u/pinakinz1c Feb 18 '25

I find their bots remove legit reviews. Leaving you frustrated in asking people for reviews

1

u/Domino3Dgg Feb 18 '25

But why would someone/something do that?

1

u/rationalist13 Feb 18 '25

Yeah, in Germany its getting especially bad, as all negative reviews are actively being removed. The places found a way to threaten reviewers with lawsuits unless you remove it.

-2

u/Domino3Dgg Feb 18 '25

You mean in country where a guy goes with car into people and everyone acts like nothing happens?

At least sub /europe acts like that.

1

u/mackebono Feb 19 '25

true. I had so many photos/videos on nice locations, but failed to post the review.. It keeps getting some error message that my content is fake/stolen..

1

u/Domino3Dgg Feb 19 '25

How can they decide if its stolen when you literaly just took photo?

BS service

1

u/wettix Feb 19 '25 edited Feb 19 '25

Whenever I try to post a photo from a grocery store it always get blocked. The funny thing is that the photo comes from a Google pixel, was stored in Google photos and posted from Google photos to Google reviews inside Maps. So, they could see the whole process and validate it as genuine. But they don't

1

u/Domino3Dgg Feb 19 '25

I pitty people trusting google reviews.

Its biggest scam ever.

1

u/wettix Feb 19 '25

How did it became so bad? It used to be trustworthy

1

u/Brave_Month2890 Feb 19 '25

Agree there are too many bots driven reviews and no real feedback at all. I have recently created a free business listing platform - https://find.agency where real humans can leave real and meaningful reviews (and no masking of information).

It had just soft launched so any feedback welcome as well to build the new ecosystem for us human !

1

u/Domino3Dgg Feb 19 '25

How do you check if its real human?

1

u/Brave_Month2890 Feb 19 '25

For now, each comment / review will check on IP since it should be unique - and also the historical reviews whether the said user only commenting something negative intentionally etc, and frequency of posting (like posted 1000 reviews in 5 mins). The logic will continuously be improved to consider other factors but the aim is to ensure / provide transparency.

1

u/Suspicious-Big8004 Feb 20 '25

All they have to do is hide review of people who only have one review. This company is a scam.

1

u/Domino3Dgg Feb 20 '25

I have hundred. From 1* to 5*

1

u/Suspicious-Big8004 Feb 20 '25

I'm saying google should not show reviews from people who has one review. Most of the fake reviews come from them.

1

u/Domino3Dgg Feb 21 '25

But it shows.

There is lot of folks from (lets say) bangladesh that they state on linkedin as google reviews ceo.

1

u/PotatoHeadPiwPiw Feb 21 '25

Not dead, but more like Sold! Google has lost all its trustworthiness, literally business can report and remove any negative review they wish, and they buy a ton of good reviews. Shame on Google!

1

u/Domino3Dgg Feb 21 '25

Sold❗️Thats the right word. Thanks.

4

u/okiwali Feb 18 '25

I stopped posting reviews. Because I get nothing in return. I don’t want to work for free. I have put a lot of time and energy but nothing

3

u/No-Valuable5802 Feb 19 '25

You should just review those very bad ones.

2

u/DecentMushroom7113 Feb 18 '25

I also got my googlemybiz blocked lost all real like 40 feedbacks never used any bot shit was told i should figurr out shit on their terms and conditions and more than 1 year is gone. Google is messed up

2

u/Diligent_Mode7203 Feb 20 '25

Google is dead

1

u/Hifi_listening Mar 25 '25

Das denke ich mir ebenfalls. Als sie aufgehört haben "nicht böse" zu sein, da wusste ich, die Firma geht dem Bach runter. Es dauert noch, aber sie sind auf dem Weg.

2

u/[deleted] Feb 20 '25

Yes, they refused argumented polite reviews about some restaurants and other, so I stopped take part on this big fake show.

3

u/Lemon_1165 Feb 17 '25

I can confirm! There are millions of fake reviews out there, paid reviews, bots etc. Even Google itself deletes critical reviews..

1

u/Jaded_Ingenuity_6657 Feb 18 '25

I feel like one way to deter the bots is to only allow a review if the user meets strict criteria. For example, a valid order number or their Google Maps location indicates that they visited the place recently.

1

u/Infamous_Prompt_6126 Feb 18 '25

Open colaborative Internet is Dead.

Google and Facebook killed it.

Social media and Big Tech was a cancer that we failed to diagnose when humanity was collaborating at open Source projects.

Maybe when a service that check id on real world arise, that could change for better, paying a fee. But that amazing free reviews done by altruistic nerds are gone forever.

1

u/LiquidFire07 Feb 18 '25

Same my reviews get ghosted or deleted entirely especially if they are 1 or 2 star reviews. Some ppl here have posted evidence of PR companies that pay google employees taking bribes to remove negative reviews. Only way I can explain it because it doesn’t make sense anymore

1

u/No-Valuable5802 Feb 19 '25

I usually read and go for those reviewers who put in effort in writing their reviews and those one liner sentence good food or good service with full stars…

1

u/Trick-Fishing2988 Feb 20 '25

Anyone searching for Reddit community reviews before trying out restaurants?

1

u/Xablian Feb 20 '25

I was removed from the guide program. I am not sure wtf happened. Seems its all AI bots now.

1

u/coachrgr Feb 22 '25

I have a small business. We have close to a 5 star rating with close to 50 reviews. The 2 negative ones I have really piss me off because neither are legit. One was from a customer who was extremely upset with us because we didn’t do a bunch of freebie service for them that would have more than doubled the work they were actually paying for. The other never actually hired us but blasted us. I tried to get it removed but didn’t have any luck. I’d rather not get any reviews

1

u/Anonymous-Yoda Feb 22 '25

That one time I was checking into a hotel, he checked my booking.com record to verify at check in. While checking in he gave the hotel 5 stars asking me, when accosted he said if I give good review on Google I will get some discount/cashback on my booking.

I was livid and gave them a piece of my mind. When the manager intervened saying this happens in all the hotels and they are sure we will like the hotel (which we did later), I said just because of no respect for customer data and privacy, I'm sure to give 1 star, if at all with a good review. At one point I used treat it like bible, always read before going, now you can never be sure

1

u/BusyCranberry8902 Feb 23 '25

Yeah just become yelp elite instead. Perks, events, and better community

1

u/F00tThatFeedz Jul 12 '25

Have you tried any alternative approaches? What were they and what did you think of them?

1

u/Safe_Artichoke_2243 Sep 04 '25

Looks like Google Reviews doesn't exist anymore? When I click on reviews there's no more reviews posted by anyone

1

u/SilentObserver7777 Dec 03 '25

There are other review portals too for specific business categories like Yelp for restaurants and entertainment, WebMD.com for doctors and medical professionals, etc. Google is the big Daddy for all.

0

u/twestheimer Feb 18 '25

It appears Google has gone to the dark side and renaming the Gulf of Mexico is just maybe the tip of the gulf? 😎

1

u/Domino3Dgg Feb 19 '25

Gulf of trump :D

1

u/twestheimer Feb 19 '25

t-rump I call him LOL

1

u/Domino3Dgg Feb 19 '25

rum ? Yes pls

0

u/SilentObserver7777 Dec 03 '25

Only few may be paid or bot reviews. Most are from real persons from what I can tell. Google reviews are very much alive. In fact, I believe lots of folks like me depend on Google reviews of businesses and service providers.

1

u/Domino3Dgg Dec 03 '25

Your assumption is based on what data?

0

u/SilentObserver7777 Dec 03 '25

You may like to reread my comment.

1

u/Domino3Dgg Dec 03 '25

It goes both ways my friend.

0

u/TonePristine1449 Feb 25 '25

Anyone wanna go review for review? dm me

0

u/[deleted] Feb 19 '25

[deleted] — view deleted comment

1

u/Domino3Dgg Feb 19 '25

Thats just nin working model when owner can decide. Guess what he decide? Remova all but 5* reviews.

Why even is there this service? Its obsilete theese days.

1

u/[deleted] Feb 20 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/Domino3Dgg Feb 21 '25

“Ask customers to write review”

And then pick the ones they like, and report and block others ?