The Google Maps channel on YouTube released a new video today on how Maps manages our reviews and decides if they should stay public, become hidden or followed up with other consequences. The video would appear to be a visual partner to the article released on The Keyword blog How reviews on Google Maps work.
Thanks for sharing the video and the article, @PaulPavlinovich
Well, let say that this is what was expected, isn’t it?
I do think so yes @ErmesT it had that feeling :).
Paul
Hi @PaulPavlinovich and @ErmesT
Thanks for sharing this. I noticed the emphasis in the video and the post on “As the world evolves, so do our policies and protections.”
Then the Covid related example is mentioned.
But are you aware of any new updates in the policies related to reviews?
With more than 2200 comments in the current thread called Known issue: [RESOLVED] Unpublished reviews and photos on Google Maps something has certainly not been solved properly yet. Comments on Connect are just the tip of the iceberg. Imagine the number of Maps users being unaware of their reviews not being public and the number of Local Guides not knowing Localguidesconnect.com. Still having the word [RESOLVED] in the title is seriously funny.
I wish we could somehow push for more attention and priority to get this solved at a higher level than until now.
Cheers
Morten
Excellent video illustrating the underlying machine learning in layman terms.
Thank you for discovering and sharing it here @PaulPavlinovich
Ah… that’s why we recently saw a lot of unpublished reviews which is some of it looks like not violating Google’s rules, at least that what was the author/reviewer said. Because the machine is learning! And just like any other learners, they are allowed to make mistakes. It’s make sense, now. At least for me.
Thanks for sharing, @PaulPavlinovich
@iorikun301 
WT. Are u saying…
we dragen gratis bij aan google zodat zei de wereld kunnen verzuren en mensen stresseren met hun amateurisme…
Dit probleem sleept nog maar 1 a 2 jaar aan… maar het is geen probleem… echt??
Ik heb NOOIT toestemming gegeven mee te doen aan dit gefaald experiment…
Laat de mensen op zijn minst zelf kiezen of ze mee willen doen of niet tot dit correct functioneert, maar waarom heel de wereld verzieken?
Ik ken mensen die 300 reviews missen, gewoon krankzinnig… ze weten het zelfs niet. Ik kan hun ook niet laten weten dat ze er zo veel missen, het gaat over TOP reviewers!
Bovendien is dit gewoon weer de zoveelste misdrijf op het recht van vrije meningsuiting.
Guides zouden zelf reviews moeten reporten die niet ok zijn… we hebben geen robot nodig.
Ik stuur elke week een bericht voor 10 reviews die private gemaakt zijn voor het laatste ± 6 maanden, ik werd ziek van de onwetendheid ervoor. (Voor ik deze website gevonden had) dit is niet correct van google ze trekken zich van niemand iets aan. Dit is zeer jammer.
My principle in reviewing a place on Maps is: Eat, Review, Forget, Repeat.
I never care much about my past review, whether it’s made private or popular. Because I know I’m good at reviewing places.
Thanks for your opinion, @De_Rouck_Sidney . Even it’s too Greek for me. The translator up there don’t translate it well. So, it is what it is 
@iorikun301 lol dang hehe Flemish … from the Hellhole 
Wow,
This is one of ur best post ever to me.
I am very surprised u see and understand the issue.
Its what i say for a long time this page is indeed the tip of the iceberg.
I know like i said in flemisch a guy who doenst know his reviews are hidden, hes lvl 10 and over 300 reviews private hes a real pro!
I cant tell him because we can’t communicate in maps.
Its also not fair we can get our reviews back and they dont because they dont know this place.
A lot of people will also suffer very hard of this… it feels like a waste of life, we are inputting without visible changes.
Before i know this place i really was thinking thinking and thinking what i did wrong. I slept bad about it and kept thinking… also think about people with ASS (autism) will get even sicker in there minds of this.
Together we have to work on a breaktrough. Not only 2200 messages but also the topic has been created on 7.02.2021 that is 1 year. I met this problem around 07.2020 then i saw it when i checked something without beeing logged in, exacly like u say.
So am am pretty sure this problem started around or before covid thats 2 years.
Its not the job for guides to teach googles AI, we are free members who wants to help the community with OUR expierience.
We can take the job of the AI, there are locals enough.
And anyway there is still a freedom of speech, google has not all the right at all to mute anything they dont want to see. Filtering negatieve reviews do more bad then good if the review is honest.
We dont need more rules. Life is thisdays we are working to dead, following rules, paying taxes, eating, sleep, and at the end of the road still beeing broke.
We only have a short time on this planet and should make the best of it.
Google must make people happy, the only thing google do now is frustrating people and giving up on who gave there hearth to the google system.
My opinion was deleting the policy rule who cause this bug until they fixed the root. (Like a said over 5 times yet)
My opinion now is deleting all policy rules, we dont need it. The AI dont learn out of my reviews anyway 10 reviews private every week! And again i am here to help the community not to follow more and more rules that there already to much in real life. There is no stopping on making rules…
I want to be the freedom ‘‘fighter’’ of google 
I want to be there for the guides, the guides who also helped me to find a LOT of new places!
I love google and the guides, and this is my biggest problem because of expecting the imposible of google. The only thing i feel is that i am a pain in the *ss at the moment.
@MortenCopenhagen you are assuming that the way it is now is unintended, perhaps the way it is now is exactly what was desired. You’re also looking at 2200 out of at least 150 million. When looking at the complainants, while some of them certainly probably don’t deserve their reviews hidden, plenty of the complainants definitely do. Of those undeserving many are older content so perhaps there is a desire for fresher content? There does not seem to be any corresponding loss of points.
@TusharSuradkar indeed, its an excellent explainer.
@iorikun301 a similar reply to Morten, perhaps it is being over active, but perhaps its working as intended. We will never know. You are similar to me Experience, Review, Forget about it.
@De_Rouck_Sidney you should read the terms and conditions - you surrender the data to be used and displayed or not displayed at Google’s whim.
Paul
@PaulPavlinovich what do you mean?
Btw the 2200 is not the number of people but the number of messages i got alot of messages in there
I will make a hunt to see local guides around…
Out of the 150mil maybe 10.000 know this website
There are at least 193,877 people on Connect @De_Rouck_Sidney - I say at least because the only public stat is how many people have made their first post and you can see it in the badges on your profile.
Oh and to answer your question what do I mean - you are assuming the current situation with reviews is not deliberate. I suspect it probably is just the new way of doing things. I have no evidence for that but some changes feel like they are this way.
@PaulPavlinovich doesnt really matter 10.000 or 100.000 its still a gap of 149.000.000 persons even if there are 500.000 persons on connect
That’s nice @De_Rouck_Sidney Connect is for Local Guides that find it interesting and wish to engage on the Topics that are suitable for Connect. Not everyone wants to do that. Each to their own. I’m so glad you found it and are able to express your individual gifted views.
Paul
Thanks for the sharing .
