I’ve been contributing for enough years now to get “New Follower” messages at a daily level these days. I’m not an advocate of having people follow my work if they’re not regular contributors, and Delete them as such if they’re not. BUT, it has come to mind often “WHERE are these new followers finding me, and WHY would they want to?” I’d love to get some feedback on this as well as any suggestions on ‘throttling’ the types of ‘contributors’ that would like to follow. Specifically those that have restricted profiles, those that haven’t contributed in a month or 2, those that have more followers than contributions, etc. I’m tagging those that might have an idea on how to ‘tackle’ this. @tony_b , @Rednewt74 , @AdamGT , @MortenCopenhagen , @DeniGu , @TerryPG
Like you I’m not a fan of having people with no contributions or hidden profiles follow me and I delete them. When you look at your followers page there is a tab for a suggestions. Maybe if you do a particular a lot of mapping of things that are interest to someone, say pizza then your name might show up in their suggestions. I still don’t really get the whole following thing but that’s okay
You’ve raised a very valid and thought-provoking point — one that I’ve often reflected on myself. With growing contributions and visibility, it’s natural to see a steady stream of new followers, but as you rightly pointed out, not all of them may be genuinely active or engaged contributors.
While there isn’t currently a way to filter or restrict who follows your profile based on their activity or transparency, your concerns are absolutely valid and could be valuable feedback for the platform.
As for how these followers are finding us — I have a few assumptions (though I could be wrong). Perhaps when we contribute to a particular place, our profile is automatically recommended to other Local Guides who have previously contributed to that same location or who live in that city or region. Similarly, if we post about a restaurant, for example, then other Local Guides who regularly contribute to restaurants may see our profiles recommended by the Maps algorithm.
It seems like Google Maps may be trying to connect contributors with similar interests, but again, these are just assumptions based on observation.
Thank you for starting this discussion — it’s a really relevant topic. I’d love to hear how others are experiencing this and if anyone has found a way to better manage or understand this pattern.
Have you noticed if certain types of contributions tend to attract more of these follower connections?
By the way, may be senior local guides, connect moderators or Google Moderators can enlighten us more about this @MoniDi@AngieYC
@WilfriedB , my post was in a hurry, and I KNEW that there were one or 2 that I didn’t add to the list. My apologies for having you in that list. - Steve
@Rednewt74 I had NO idea that this section existed. As such, and because I’ve been all over the country, as well as Europe recently, I’m now understanding why people are adding after places I’ve recently been. Thanks!
@shunsader How are you?
Your reviews are public, your general reviews are material so that people can find good places that meet their needs, and when these profiles become more active, Google suggests reviewers for people to follow.
You can make your profile private, but your reviews will always be public to the public, and that’s okay.
@NandKK , thanks for your response. I used to be VERY active back in 2023, but my photo posts and reviews today have to do with remembering where I ate/stayed, and whether I liked it or not. This is kind of how I got started in early 2023. I can’t really confirm that the new followers are coming from RECENT posts, but will keep an eye out for it. I DO recognize the Spam Followers, and Restricted followers which would be quite nice to filter out. - Steve
@GasparKaren , I suppose that I should take your view into account. It would just be ‘nice’ knowing that the reason for them following me has something to do with the quality of my reviews, and not some unqualified suggestion that Google has made to others. After all, over the years I’ve gotten some really strange and unrealistic notes from Google, including that I’m one of the top 10% restaurant, sushi, or beer contributors on Maps, after having contributed less than 30 reviews. Their notes have always seemed suspect since the math doesn’t really seem to work out. - Steve
I’m so indifferent about Maps followers that I don’t even bother to check and delete robots and low quality contributors.
I suspect that some of the eager followers are misguided by the notion that having a lot of followers is a sign of prestige and quality. And if you follow a lot of people a fraction of them will follow back out of politeness.
As long as direct communication with followers is impossible on Google Maps I think the concept of having followers is of very low importance.
I follow very few people my self. These are people I know and care about and I appreciate seeing their reviews at the top when checking out places.
@GasparKaren ,
Thought I’d check out your profile, and when looking at the Reviews and Photos, both said " This user hasn’t uploaded any photos yet, or has chosen not to show them on their profile.", BUT already know that this is bogus, since the other section showed over 1,000 reviews and 10,400 photos. Good thing that Google’s stock price has nothing to do with their ability to keep the FREE CONTRIBUTIONS part of their business up/running and accurate.
@MortenCopenhagen ,
As always, thanks for your response. I could almost anticipate your response, since I’ve read previous posts along the same lines back in 2023, when I was just getting to know Connect. - Thanks - Steve
Thanks for sharing your experience, Steve @shunsader ! It’s great that you’re keeping track of your posts and observations. Hopefully, Google introduces better tools for that soon. Keep us posted if you notice anything new!
Hi Steve, I think we briefly talked about this a few months ago. My understanding is that so many of them are Bots sent out to collect info on our post ,views , reviews, etc. for an on line stats keeper similar to the [top 100]
(Login) board. That @AdamGT provides for us.
They may be harmless, but I don’t know if I want someone else watching me and what else are they watching?
See screenshot below, I could show so many more of these.
@shunsader I’ve previously written about this same issue, and always comment when others write as well. I also have had a lot of new followers rececntly, and the source or cause is not entirely obvious. As I’m not into social media, the following concept doesn’t appeal to me.
I usually “follow back” any who seem okay. Others I delete. But apart from reciprocal action, I really don’t see any reason to go searching for people to follow.
@shunsader My profile is private, which anyone with a Google account can do. Reviews are public on the reviewed sites, but if someone follows the profile, they will have to be approved to be able to see the other activities.
