UPDATED: Temporary product changes in Google Maps

[mchomsky]

UPDATE: May 18, 2020 at 9am PT
We’re happy to share that reviews and photos are being published on Google Maps for all countries. Additionally, the ability to ask and answer questions has been enabled for many businesses and we expect it to expand over the coming weeks.

Thank you once again to all of you in the Local Guides community for your continued patience and positivity throughout this process. We know many of you continue to ask about new ways to help your local communities - please stay tuned as we will have more to share in the weeks ahead.

UPDATE: April 9, 2020 at 6am PT

Starting today, some of you may notice your new ratings, reviews and photos are being published on Google Maps. Since our last update, we have been working to restore the ability for people to contribute to Maps. This functionality will be made gradually available in a limited number of countries and categories.

We greatly appreciate the patience and positivity from our entire community, and we hope you all continue to stay healthy and safe. As we have more updates to share, we will post them here.

During the unprecedented COVID-19 situation, we are taking steps to protect the health of our team members and reduce the need for people to come into our offices. As a result, there will be temporary limitations and delays in how you can contribute on Google Maps as we prioritize critical services.

To make sure content on Google Maps is helpful, accurate and reliable for our users, we use a combination of people (operators and analysts) and technology (automated detection systems) to help us moderate contributed content.

We wanted to share an update on changes you may notice in Google Maps. After you submit a contribution on Maps, such as a review, photo or edit, you may get a message that your contribution will be delayed. This temporary change means that your contribution may not appear publicly on Google Maps. However, you will still be able to see all of your contributions on your profile page.

It’s also important to note that regardless of whether your contribution shows up on Google Maps at this time, you’ll still get the same number of Local Guide points. And of course, all contributions should adhere to Maps User Contributed Content Policy.

Finally, teams across Google are working on ways to help businesses and we are exploring new ways we can empower Local Guides to do the same. Stay tuned here on Connect to learn more on how Local Guides can help.

These are temporary product changes and we are doing our best to remove this delay as soon as possible. Thank you to our entire Local Guide community for your patience. We’ll be sure to provide further updates to you all here on Connect.

[ElBishasha]

The best thing I have done and still want to do is adding all the businesses and places present in Burundi.
Unfortunately all the addition of places dont get approved(still try tho).But I cant complain about the addition of the places.
What is no really okay is the fact that I cant change the roads names and street.

A lot of changes happened and I dont have the permissions to do that which is very annoying.If I can find someone to talk to and can actually do something about it I will for sure
Eg:Blvd du 28Nov is no longer that its Blvd Mwezi Gisabo

And the list is huge

Anyway I keep adding even if sometimes it got refused when I am in front of it(Business) with photos,website, tel number and so on

PS:I am a level 10 so I can humbly say that I know what I am talking about

[Anakor_Jeremiah]

As the Novel Corona Virus continues to push limits, I just noticed that new edits remain pending for longer than usual, I wish to ask after our dear Mods, hope you all safe and fine, are you all on break or working on shifts now.

Best regards.

Jeremiah

[Polterelefant]

Hello, first of All i am from germany and my English is Not the best. I am having issues with Posting my reviews since friday. It will Not be shown to the people. I have tried multiple Accounts even the Accounts from friends. I could Not find anything about a maintenance or so. Have you the same Problem or you have Tips to help. I am extremely desperate because i like reviews.

[MortenCopenhagen]

Hi @Polterelefant

I understand your English without problems.

There is an ongoing issue due to the Corona pandemic, so reviews, and edits - and I now think also photos are not getting approved/posted as usual. Google has admitted this publicly. So I’m afraid there is not much help. Or at least be assured that it is not you doing anything wrong.

Cheers from the locked-down Copenhagen.

[ErmesT]

Hi @Polterelefant

As mentioned by @MortenCopenhagen , this is known. BTW, it is an intentional action by Google My Business (not an Issue):Limited Google My Business functionality due to COVID-19 .

Covid-19 is affecting everyone, and Google took the decision to give priority to essential businesses.

I personally saw, started from a few weeks ago, reviews that are not related to the services, but to the Covid-19 situation itself, so I agree with GMB decision.

Unfortunately, due to the actual impossibility to check the reviews one by one, they decided to lock them.

You do not need to be extremely desperate, BTW. I like reviews too, and I think that a good option for now can be to share your places with us, here in Local guides Connect.

This is what I did recently, with Su e zo pai ponti - Up and down on the Venetian Bridges . Have you already been in Venice?

Please check “Your guide to Connect” , the introductory Guide of the community. In there you will find all the necessary information to know how to better contribute in the community

Do you have a doubt about how to do something? The Help desk is here for you,with a long list of post with detailed indications on how to post.

Which kind of contents we share in the community? What are Connect topics? will give you an explanation

[YuTung]

I posted some reviews with description and photos recently. However, they didn’t appear when I clicked into the location page, and it happened the same when using others’ account.

I can see those posts in my contribution, with my own account. BUT others still cannot see my reviews when they see my profile. Some of the photos did show up. Pretty strange.

The number of my reviews is increasing if I keep posting.

Is there any reason?

---

我的評論只能在我自己帳號裡的"我的貢獻"才看得到，其他人點進地點裡是看不到的，只會出現照片。我自己分享連結出去，其他人也看不見評論，只有照片。而我的評論數卻是有在上升。不知道為什麼？？

[SaifIS]

Hi @YuTung According to a new update, no new review, review replies & Q&A will be published until things get cleared. Source: https://support.google.com/business/answer/9792336?hl=en

So no worry, your review should be published when everything goes normal again.

[Nitishgautam]

@mchomsky All local guides are doing their best to help people.And we will keep going forward so that people can help as much as possible.My humble request to all of you is to help in some way.

[TorM]

Thank you @mchomsky for this important information.

We will go through this and learn a lot, but we will manage it together!

[system]

Thank you

@mchomsky

[Yannick_S]

Ohh Thank you very much for this clarification @mchomsky

I myself encountered this problem today when I was contributing on Google Maps. I crashed, I even thought I was blocked or something not cool happened to my account!

Thanks again!

Let’s Guides
Let’s stay protected!

Y-Nick

[sparekh]

@mchomsky thank you for keeping community updated.

[AlphaSays]

Awesome! I have not actually been able to contribute effectively for almost a month due to covid-19 and we are on lockdown. I hope this get’s over soon so we can all go back to our normal lives.

[SaifIS]

@mchomsky Thanks for the update. We hope and pray for the quick recovery.

[Jesi]

Good to know, @mchomsky . Health comes first!

[LuigiZ]

Very good to know, thank you very much @mchomsky .

Keep strong, stay safe and healthy everyone .

[OSAMA]

Thanks for this information @mchomsky !

[AmbrishVarshney]

thank you, Local Guide Team, for information @mchomsky

[SebaasC]

Thanks for keep us informed.

I have noticed this delay.

I think that we have to stay safe as Local Guide and work together to help small business to go through this temporally worldwide quarantine as soon as possible.

Stay safe.

Warm Regards.

@mchomsky