and the REST of the question – “…and my page shows 9 reviews?”
Wow, this question from an old friend of mine stirred up the smoldering embers of anger regarding Google. Just thinking about all the decisions that have been made in the past 4 or 5 years by Google. Don’t let anyone kid you or fill you up with anti-Microsoft “protection by obfuscation” rhetoric – Microsoft has NOTHING on Google. Google wasn’t around until the late 90s and I really remember doing a fist pump and thinking “One for the little guy! Finally a company that will make things EQUAL and FAIR!” This was in response to the then current Evil Empire – Microsoft and Bill Gates.
Now, in comparison, Microsoft is warm and cuddly. Google does everything it can to infiltrate every portion of your life.. I can smell a whole new rant, and we’re just going to leave that hostility for another day.
This was my answer to her…
The best I can tell you is “Because it’s Google.” I’m sure they have their own justification of however they do whatever they seem to think constitutes their view of the way the internet should work. Should that information be reliable or even reasonable is another whole story.
My guess is that these reviews may or may NOT be trusted because of course Google reserves the right to make those business-breaking judgment calls – unilaterally. They DID come in (many of them) about 4 weeks ago which does look a little fishy.
The big one is the “4 weeks ago reviews” appearing. So if you for example had very few reviews for 5 years for the business being open and then you got 5 reviews in one week? That looks a little fishy. Is it possible that COULD happen? Sure. You COULD have had a big off-web promotion and encouraged people to review your business at an open house and got that kind of response. Not saying that is what was done, but…
Google also tests IPs. If your reviews came from an IP in the middle of the Pacific or out of the area – even just over the border in VA? GOOGLE reserves the right to DECIDE if the people that review your business are legit – unilaterally. When you’re a local business, you need to be getting local reviews from local IPs. Now if you are reviewing something like a product that you bought off Google that can be used anywhere, then it makes sense to get the reviews from all over.
Then I see two more that just list the reviewer as “A Google User.” To me, that indicates that there was either a question about the veracity of the user – or Google lost the data in the transport through the many system iterations that they have had across the last several years, and you, of course, will pay THIS price unilaterally.
There are also the multiple Google systems that have been in play over the last few years. Ongoing Google decisions have made working with their systems very challenging. Google is NOT stupid by any means. On the contrary, there are VERY good minds at work over there. However, I think they often think they are smarter and better than they really are and don’t take into account the average user that is NOT living inside their main compound. This leads to a lot of very poorly planned, explained, and executed moves on their part.
The point is that Google is always changing what they do, how they do it, why the do it, with little to no explanation or warning… It may be justified or unjustified, but in either case, it can and often does cause a lot of chaos. If you’re trying to figure them out and left scratchin’ your head…. Welcome to my world.
