Frustrated with Edits not being approved - what can I and Google do?

[Oh_My_Goshen]

Hi Everyone!
Ive been trying for some time now to edit business (and roads / navigation) in order to correct wrong info in Maps, or simply add new places - but some (or most) of them never go live because “Google couldn’t verify my edit”.

This is super frustrating as I do spend a lot of time on those edits, and when they fail to verify I feel like I’m working for nothing.

What can I do to make my edits get verified? Is it even up to me? up to others (who need to verify them)?

What I think Google can and should do, is to simply check your level and history of edits:
If you are above level X and you edited Y places who got approved (or if you got Z likes on your reviews) - why not assume that you mean well and “trust” you with these changes?

Google can’t obviously verify everything all the time, and if there isn’t any meaning for the Local Guides’ levels, so why are we even doing this?

Google must find a way or a method (and I’m sure the developers can easily find such a way) to “measure” a google guide’s level of seriousness and “success” history, and allow the leading ones to submit edits which are automatically approved, but are also sent for verification to fellow top-tier google guides from the same region.

If the original Google guide’s edit is being rejected by other peers - than the edit is being reverted to the one before the change.

Im sure that such solutions can be found but please - the current situation is unbelievably frustrating and must be fixed! Who (from Google’s side) can help with this? Im sure im not the first one who complains about this, and im also sure im not the first person to suggest such an easy solution to implement.

I do enjoy writing reviews and adding useful info to business, but if my edits are not considered valuable by the algorithm, despite all my contributions - than I’ll just stop doing it and google will lose me and others as guides, which will cause Maps to be not accurate or up to date and people wont use it, which will be a shame.

Looking forward to the community’s suggestions and help promoting this idea.
Thanks,
Ori

[ErmesT]

Hi @Oh_My_Goshen

I know it is frustrating when an edit is not applied, but I can ensure you that the filter is preventing a huge amount of fake or inappropriate edits. The verification is made mostly through an online search for “digital footprints” of the place (registration in a public accessible register, online mentions of the place, and so on) so the best thing to do before to submit an edit is to perform a search your self.

A trusted score can of course be gained, but believe me that even local guide with thousands of approved edits like me have some rejected edit, if the information submitted cannot be verified. For more information please read: Why is my edit status “Pending” or “Not Applied”?

Likes in reviews, points, level, are irrelevant for a trusted score. Most of the biggest spammer, now removed from the Local Guides program, where high level Local Guides.

If an edit is not applied, submitting the same information more than once will even reduce your trusted score, so if you don’t have more detailed information, the best thing to do is to give up, and to suggest the business to Claim the business directly in Google my business, the free program reserved for the businesses that wants to be added in Google Maps

[JanVanHaver]

@Oh_My_Goshen you might find it hard to believe, but the situation has already improved dramatically from what it used to be at some point (in terms of edits/additions getting accepted).

Basically it went like this: at first (years ago) it was really easy to add/edit stuff on Maps, then this possibility started attracting more and more people… and consequently more and more abuse. So Google shut down a lot of the options at some point and has now started “releasing” things again. As a result, unfortunately highly motivated, well-meaning local guides, like yourself, get to deal with a fair amount of frustration.

The things we do know about how exactly the process works (including a lot of evidence-based speculation, as Google is quite secretive about it - to avoid the abusers getting info on how to avoid being caught) I have collected in a podcast episode which you can find here or in any podcast player you prefer.

And if you have specific examples on things you tried to add or edit that were not approved, just share them here, so other local guides can help you understand what could be going on. And please don’t give up - we need loads of motivated editors! (see also the Local Guides Clean The Map project)

[turbotapeworm]

As @JanVanHaver says it’s a lot better than it used to be but it’s by no means perfect (yet) and I appreciate it can be really frustrating at times, especially when you’re the Local Guide, with the local knowledge of the place in question and you’re being told you can’t be trusted by a “robot” that’s never been there.

Unfortunately some places just seem to be Teflon coated when it comes to edits, I don’t know why this is but it’s incredibly hard to do anything to improve certain places and make them more meaningful for other users. A prime example for me is a car park I use on a regular basis, it’s on a university campus and is called “Orange Zone Car Park” - it’s unmanaged on Google but belongs to the University.

It’s category is “University” and it’s marked as being within the university and no matter what you do it refuses to be changed to “Car Park” and as a result someone has now added a second place there called “Car Park” with the correct category to help people search for it.

There are loads of similar ones to this and unfortunately you sometimes just have to move on with your life and accept you can’t fix everything, it’s super frustrating though

[DanJordan]

Hey, new where at connect, but I have been having a similar problem with trusted reviews? Been traveling Asia and visiting lots of new places, so trying to leave detailed reviews everywhere, but points not going going up

[zeemirza]

I’m having the same issues I visited Barcelona just before Xmas 2022 and reviewed all the places I visited when I got home both with pics etc but those review are not published and been denied by the moderators can anyone see any issues with the example review I’ve done? Soo frustrating

[turbotapeworm]

My recent experience sums it up for me:

Place 1: a villa in a country I’ve never visited but one I’m going to in a few months. The pin was in the wrong place and the road next to it hasn’t been drawn, I edited both and they were approved within 24 hours.

Place 2: a bar in my hometown - someone added it with a street name and the correct post code but it’s put the pin in the city nearby on a street with the same name despite the postcode being correct. I happen to work right next to where the pin is incorrectly placed so I’m there on a regular basis. I’m also near the actual location a lot and have even submitted photos of the bar for the listing (which were approved and are the top images).

I tried to edit the pin and update the address to remove and add for clarity (same street, same postcode) - denied.

So I have local knowledge as a local guide and am not trusted, I have no knowledge of another place yet they’re OK with that. It’s bizarre.

[Oh_My_Goshen]

@ErmesT

Seems I didn’t thank you for your reply, so thanks!

I do wish to add that the frustration comes mostly when I try to edit and correct streets, roads and paths that appear in a wrong way or format in Maps.

E.g road that are closed for 6 months still appear as open and Maps navigation drives you “through” them, which is totally wrong.

I tried several times to edit such road but nothing happened. Isn’t there any other way? I’m sure Google doesn’t want people to get wrong navigation directions

What do you think can help in such cases?

Thanks!

Ori

[ErmesT]

Never mind @Oh_My_Goshen , and sorry for my late reply.

Thanks for clarifying that you rea talking about roads, one of the subject that I the most (I actually have 6000+ roads added in Google Maps).

Different issues require different actions:

Road closure can be reported efficiently in navigation mode, e.g. for construction activities. To do that you will have to be near the place.

Editing and correction shapes of the roads is actually possible but I believe in the actual stage of the program the edit will be barely accepted. I always do this only in conjunction with adding roads, and in such case most of the time the edit is approved.

In the past with less contributors in Road editing the situation was very different, as you can read in Correct Road Shapes in Google Maps - “Follow the Blue Line” . However, when the edit ability on desktop was opened to everyone Google has to transfer a large part of the moderation to the AI, and I think there is room for some improvement on that side