I was preparing for a trip I take to Waikiki for an annual conference I was at last year, and I just tried to use the google maps/your contributions feature to look up all the dozen-odd great restaurants about which I wrote long, serious reviews on last year’s trip. I was planning to make reservations at several of them for a return visit.
Much to my surprise, every single review in Hawaii that I wrote during or after last year’s trip has vanished. I could understand one or two being removed, as after all one of the restaurants has closed, etc., but all?
Google, this is a fine example of why your longtime users are losing trust in your company. Your algorithms are just… too stupid. And untrustworthy. The human touch is missing.
I’ve been a fan of the Google Maps application for years, and was happy to contribute hundreds of reviews from the early days. When the Local Guides program started I was amused by the gamification and getting various local guide status and perks, but now I am simply disgusted beyond words.
Now I’m left wondering: Why bother contributing to Google Reviews?
There are plenty of other services out there for reviewing restaurants and travel that don’t randomly delete all your reviews from a trip. I think I now know why users find them more useful. Thank goodness I also reviewed a few of my top Waikiki restaurants from last year on another service, and was able to recapture their names there.