Google’s effort to remain relevant in the lucrative online review space continues, but their recent revival of their “City Experts” program still falls flat. The original idea was first released in 2013 in an effort to play ball with ratings giants like Yelp and Urbanspoon. The response was less-than-stellar, as users quickly found a laundry list of things they didn’t like about it (see
here). Although
Google’s new “Local Experts” answers some of the users’ concerns, it creates new ones while leaving others unanswered.
[Media sourced via]
Google’s effort to remain relevant in the lucrative online review space continues, but their recent revival of their “City Experts” program still falls flat. The original idea was first released in 2013 in an effort to play ball with ratings giants like Yelp and Urbanspoon. The response was less-than-stellar, as users quickly found a laundry list of things they didn’t like about it (see
here). Although
Google’s new “Local Experts” answers some of the users’ concerns, it creates new ones while leaving others unanswered.
[Media sourced via]
Although I can see the allure of Google offering a ratings program for local businesses; after all, they’re always trying to return the most accurate results that web surfers want to see (sometimes before the person even knows it). Still there are some major red flags here, from both a general user and marketing perspective. Below is my current list of concerning areas.
Although I can see the allure of Google offering a ratings program for local businesses; after all, they’re always trying to return the most accurate results that web surfers want to see (sometimes before the person even knows it). Still there are some major red flags here, from both a general user and marketing perspective. Below is my current list of concerning areas.