A new badge proposed for Level 8+ : Zagat Level Reviewer

[ele]

Google paid 165 million in 2011 for Zagat. Former Yahoo CEO and Google executive Marissa Mayer was responsible for the deal. Now Google is selling Zagat. Why not make the Level 8+ the “Zagat worthy” reviewers?

Bit of history - The Zagat Survey was established by Tim and Nina Zagat in 1979 as a way to collect and correlate the ratings of restaurants by diners. The first guide was, where else, in New York, the Zagats surveyed their friends. At its height, in 2005, the Zagat Survey included 70 cities, with reviews based on the input of 250,000 individuals with the guides reporting on and rating restaurants, hotels, nightlife, shopping, zoos, music, movies, theaters, golf courses, and airlines. The guides were sold as a book, and were only available as a paid subscription on the Zagat website. Think about “Angies List” model, before Angies List.

Since 2011, Zagat has been under Google ownership in an effort to push the search giant’s local search efforts. Touted as key push into reviews, things haven’t necessarily panned out that way — Google integrated Zagat into its Maps and Search features, but seeing how Maps already hosts millions of reviews, Google does not find Zagat as useful anymore.

In January this year, it looks like Google might be ready to offload the restaurant review guide onto someone else’s shoulders. Also, a Zagat sale would fall in line with Alphabet’s desire to shed as many non-core assets as possible in an attempt to streamline its business.

How did the restaurant review worked for Google Zagat?

In order to be reviewed by Zagat Google team, the owners had to go to Google My Business and register. Since Zagat was part of the Google family, this was the best way to request.

Local editors reviewed listings in their market to identify restaurants worth adding to Zagat. They considered a variety of factors, such as Google user ratings and reviews, to find high quality restaurants with compelling character or unique aspects. The Zagat editorial team made the final selection of restaurants that will be covered on Zagat.com.

What can Google Local Guides help? 

Why not look at the Google Maps Guides to continue this “high end reviews”, where:

1. Google maps team has a form to allow restaurants to volunteer to be reviewed
2. The requests are first filtered by the Google maps software, based on current reviews, and publishes the filtered "to be reviewed" list to the Local Guides 8+ level
3. A Local Guide can volunteer to do an “in-depth” review of the place, similar to the Zagat standards, and submits a 200+ words reviews + photos for the restaurant
4. In Google Maps, these “in depth” reviews are ranked higher, or marked by a special badge

[YK1001]

Hi @ele,

Thank you very much for sharing the history of Zagat and its relationship with Maps.

Your idea of depth review is interesting.  There should be some method to qualify LGs in additions to Levels.  Sounds very feasible to me.  I wish Google will consider this idea.

[ele]

@YK1001 A more detailed review (Zagat quality) for top restaurants in a city will be something I will "go to" anytime I go to a new destination. Especially if there is one near me as I make plans. 

Hope the Google Maps team will consider it. 

[NadyaPN]

Hi @ele,

Thank you for sharing your comments here. It is always useful to know what you think. We will pass your comments onto the team. 

Just so you know, I've removed your other topic because it was duplicate to this one but it had no replies. And I also moved your current topic to the Feedback and Feature Requests.

Thanks! 

See you around.

- Nadya