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Level 6

Rating points issue

Please consider enhancing the rating system (for local guides if not for everyone), so that a tenth-decimal numerical rating can be given.  I would often like to give, for example, a 3.5 or a 4.4 rating, but I'm relegated to whole numbers only.  An enhanced rating system becomes especially important when rating a business relative to other ratings one has already given to similar businesses.  I am sparing with the superlative "5" but I would more often give a rating above a 4.0 if I could do so.  Since the summary rating expresses in the tenths decimal, it seems appropriate to allow guides at least to be more exacting.  Thank you.

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Level 8

Re: Rating points issue

Hi @Beau_A_Stewart,

I totally get what you are saying, but research has shown that people are generally rather bad when it comes to being consequent with their rating.  The system is also far too generic to probably make it worthwhile for Google to do so. It is really only meant to be an indicator.

 

For example, I go to a restaurant that advertises that they specialize in traditional local food. I go there and I am very disappointed by their menu. None of my classic traditional favorites are on the menu. In fact, the menu options are very poor. Because I went there with a certain expectation, it will affect my review & rating considerably. You may go to the same restaurant, pick a dish, like it and give a higher rating. We were both rating two different things.  

My guess is that very few people take rating that serious that they would like to be able to give a  4.4 rating. If it wasn't for the consequences of the User Interface, and the extra work to implement it, it would be a very interesting/ attractive tool to distinguish serious people like yourself from those that rate with a simple:

 

1 = I hated it

2 = Bad

3 = Okay (average)

4 = Good

5 = I loved it

 

By recognizing you as a certain type of reviewer, Google could give more weight to your review. There is a post here on Connect where a Googler gives a little insight into the science behind how they end up giving a place a 4.4. It is not a simple add up and divide by formula. It is all based on human behavior. You probably find that because you rate from 1-5 and give seldom a 5, your rating is already processed differently from those users that mostly award 4 and 5 stars.