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How reviews on Google Maps work
How reviews on Google Maps work
Updated over a year ago

Importance of Google Reviews

• Google reviews help users discover and evaluate businesses with insights from local knowledge.

• Millions of reviews are posted daily, making moderation essential to ensure accuracy and reliability.


Policies to Ensure Authenticity

• Google enforces strict content policies to keep reviews relevant, authentic, and free from offensive or irrelevant content.

• Policies evolve to address real-world changes, such as blocking reviews targeting businesses for their COVID-19 policies.


Moderation System: Machine Learning and Human Review

Automated Moderation:

• Machine learning algorithms analyze reviews immediately after posting to detect patterns of fraud, abuse, or policy violations.

Factors analyzed include:

Review content: Offensive, off-topic, or irrelevant text.

Reviewer account history: Suspicious behavior or patterns.

Activity spikes: Unusual surges in reviews for a business.

• Most fake or inappropriate reviews are removed before becoming visible.

Human Moderation:

• Operators conduct quality checks, refine machine models, and handle flagged content.

• They provide nuanced understanding, such as distinguishing legitimate uses of sensitive terms from harmful ones.


Continuous Monitoring

• Reviews that pass the initial checks are posted within seconds, but moderation doesn’t stop there.

• Google’s systems continue analyzing patterns, such as clusters of reviews on multiple businesses or unusual spikes in ratings.


Reporting and Abuse Prevention

User Reporting:

• Businesses and users can flag reviews that violate policies through simple reporting tools.

• Flagged reviews are reviewed by human operators, and violators may face account suspension or litigation.

Proactive Abuse Mitigation:

• Google identifies risks, such as targeted abuse during major events (e.g., elections), and implements extra protections for affected businesses.


Commitment to Trustworthy Content

• Google is constantly improving its algorithms and human moderation to stay ahead of bad actors.

• More than 1 billion users rely on Google Maps monthly, making authenticity and reliability a top priority.


Google’s moderation system combines advanced machine learning and human oversight to maintain the integrity of reviews. Their efforts ensure that reviews remain a trusted source of local knowledge while actively combating fraud and abuse.

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