Ask HN: Anyone else notice how useless Google Maps reviews have become?
I'm a "local guide" with their reviewing system, and it seems they have shadow-banned nearly 90% of legitimate reviews I've left over the years. It's quite alarming, because it seems any business can just flag a negative review now, and have it taken down to boost their overall rating, while obviously allowing companies to have 1 review accounts leave a fake 5-star rating. It has completely removed my trust in their rating system after witnessing this. This isn't just GOOG products, it's everything with a review. It's cheaper to buy a thousand five star reviews than improve your service to the point where honest reviewers give you top marks. The review/stars system is not fit for basing decisions on. Unhappy people are more likely to leave a review in frustration and one bad review outweighs twenty good ones. The deck is stacked poorly. I do leave reviews when I'm happy about a place, but I try to make it obvious I've been there and am relating an experience rather than just tapping a star. I wonder why there is no review system between friends. Friends' advice is a very good metric. Add in some discovery mecanism to avoid loops, and you've got a cheap and trusted system. Who on earth bothers to use google maps any more? They are so retro 1950's. Organic maps on me blower and openstreetmaps on the old Puter. Blinding mucker!