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Google Maps Reviews in Germany are utterly pointless (lemmy.world)
submitted 2 months ago by to c/degoogle@lemmy.ml
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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/50778217

πŸ—ΊοΈ While visiting Pride Berlin, I learned how utterly pointless Google Maps Reviews in Germany are.

⭐ Any place can simply report negative reviews for defamation or claim the person was never there and have it removed.

Users can then appeal & risk a lawsuit.

When a review is removed the removed count on Google Maps goes up (πŸ–ΌοΈ 1)

However that count is reset after 365 days and also only goes to 250! (πŸ–ΌοΈ 2)

Therefore companies can simply mass report negative reviews to improve their rating.

https://support.google.com/contributionpolicy/answer/16997273

So many vulnerable people are relying on Google Maps reviews & ratings to tell them where it is save to go.

Some places have only 1000-2000 reviews but >250 reviews removed in the past 365 days!

Like how bad must the situation there be?!

Absolute shame.

Screenshot of a business on Google Maps with "Over 250 reviews removed due to defamation complaints." in the past past 365 days.

all 15 comments

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[–] 24 points 2 months ago (3 children)

I don't only blame google, I also blame the German laws around this

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    [–] 30 points 2 months ago (7 children)

    If a company has many removed reviews they're crap. If they don't, they're not crap. They're deliberately showing how many have been removed.

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  • [–] 25 points 2 months ago (3 children)

    A CafΓ© in my hometown recently got review bombed by nazis after they kicked out a far right streamer. Hundreds of one star reviews by people who had never been there, with made up claims. Should they not be able to have these removed?

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  • [–] [S] 11 points 2 months ago (2 children)

    Sadly after 365 days the count resets :( Evil corp helping evil...

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  • [–] 7 points 2 months ago (1 child)

    That's kind of fair, though. A company could change hands, or a product could change. In the latter case you often see great reviews that actually relate to a totally different product because they've enshittified it.

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    • [–] 8 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 child)

    So many vulnerable people are relying on Google Maps reviews & ratings to tell them where it is save to go.

    They should probably stop doing that.

    https://www.theglobetrotterguys.com/gay-berlin-travel-guide/

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    • 15 comments in c/lemmyshitpost@lemmy.world view that post
    [–] 58 points 2 months ago

    In Germany there some companies who after a few months just "force provement of visit" on all low reviews. And then the person who post the review is required do fight back and upload a receipt of the store. It's verry annoying to find real good stores

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    [–] 44 points 2 months ago (2 children)

    I wrote this a few months ago:

    On the other hand, a business owner has no other tool against review bombing except this. In a village near me a barber shop was review bombed by neo-nazis due to their support for refugees. They removed the fake reviews successfully but from time to time this Nazi scum remembers and review bomb them again. This goes on since at least 2020.

    https://feddit.org/comment/12708871

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    • [–] 40 points 2 months ago (1 child)

    OpenStreetMaps should include reviews so that I can get info from my geeks and nerd online frens

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    • [–] 13 points 2 months ago

    That’s all of them. People with grievances have good reviews removed too tbh

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    [–] 13 points 2 months ago

    Obligatory 'Fuck Google'.

    They should just straight up put a big, red exclamation mark on averages for places where unusually many reviews are removed, with an appeal process for the business, not the users.

    On that lawsuit thing thought: You don't risk anything by appealing. Courts don't care what Google has to say. The business can sue you right away, they don't need to remove anything first. If what you said are simple facts however, there is nothing they can do. Nothing but ask Google to remove it anyway.

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    [–] 11 points 2 months ago* (2 children)

    Not useless, that's a warning to avoid the business.

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    • [–] 8 points 2 months ago

    Google maps reviews are pretty useless in general. I find they're only to be read for entertainment value.

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    [–] 5 points 2 months ago (2 children)

    Not pointless, find the new average, everything removed was a 1 star

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    • [–] 2 points 2 months ago

    Always give a 2-star rating and explain that you would rather give it zero stars. Google won't remove it without much more investigation.

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    2 comments in c/degoogle@discuss.tchncs.de view that post
    [–] 8 points 2 months ago (1 child)

    that number is also a telling review then

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  • [–] 1 point 2 months ago*

    Yes it telling, but don't matter. I have many bad reviews removed from bad places, that now stands with high rating that the good places that have 0 review complaint. I can not give more 5 scores on good places, I can not give less that 5 scores to bad places. It is impossible to a good place has better score without playing the same game, that some places, are too good to enter in this shit

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