Ask and answer questions on Google Maps

[lisawang]

 UPDATE: This feature is now available to all Local Guides on both Google Maps for Android and Google Search on any mobile device. 

There’s a new way to learn and share knowledge on Google Maps for Android, and we’re inviting Local Guides (Levels 2 and up) to try it now.

Want to know a restaurant’s most popular dessert? Or if a museum offers free tours? Or the best place to park near a popular beach? Now you can ask questions about places directly on Google Maps.

When you ask a question, we’ll send it to business owners and other people who know about the place. When you get an answer, we’ll notify you through Google Maps. You can also help answer questions from others.

See a great question? You can upvote it. Upvoting makes popular questions more visible, so they’ll be more likely to get answered. You can also upvote helpful answers, so others can find them easily.

To try it right now, search for a place on Google Maps for Android and look for “Questions & answers.” Or, check it out on these top sites around the world:

Abbey Road Studios, London

Abbey Road Studios, London (photo by Bintang Pramodana) 

Humayun’s Tomb, New Delhi

Humayun’s Tomb, New Delhi (photo by Chandan Anand)

Kuromon Ichiba Market, Osaka

Kuromon Ichiba Market, Osaka (photo by Ramlee Tamin)

Opera Bar, Sydney

Opera Bar, Sydney (photo by Wilson Yan)

Frontiers of Flight Museum, Dallas

Frontiers of Flight Museum, Dallas (photo by Isaac Recuero López)

We’d love to hear what you think of this new way to talk to others on Google Maps. Let us know.

FAQs

If I ask a question, who will answer it?

Other people on Google Maps can answer your questions, and so can business owners. To help you get an answer quickly, we’ll notify people we think can help answer your question.

Why can’t I use this feature on my desktop computer or iOS device?

Right now, questions and answers are only on Google Maps for Android. We will be rolling the feature out on mobile Google Search soon, so watch for more.

Do I get points?

You get 3 points for every answer you provide on this new feature.

[Laurel]

 There are beautiful places like schools and hotels in Nsukka, Enugu state Nigeria where the first indigenous university of Nigeria is locatedlocated can't be found in the Google map. Please can our local guides located there post some pictures from these places for people around the world to see our beautiful environment.

[HassanMoussa]

I tried it and liked it

[Denise1]

I don't like it. All I've gotten are nonsensical two or three word ones and questions that only employees would know. Of maybe 10 "questions" I couldn't answer a single one.

Is there a way to turn off notifications for questions? 

[Johnvb]

Thanks for this @lisawang I've been trying for a little while and answered a couple of questions. Yesterday someone asked a question at a doctor's surgery. I would hate them to be disappointed and not get a solution to their urgent medical issue. Maybe more moderation is needed or it can be deactivated for locations such as health/government institutions.

[IvanLondon]

Hi @lisawang this new feature seems to get a great momentum, well-done!

some places have more than 10 questions already! So as the number of questions and answers grows, I think it's time to do what Google does the best - to add search! 🙂

here is a mock-up of what this new 'Search' box could look like:

[IvanLondon]

Hi @lisawang and here is another idea: it would be cool to add a new option to upload photos and videos to answers to visualise them (as per below mock-up for Sefrides Store)

Hope you find this suggestion helpful,

Ivan London

[RenataH]

Awesome. It would benefit this feature, if prior to posting a question, the inquirer would be prompted with: Is this a question or comment? If they respond, "question," then they are able to post. However, if they respond "comment," then it can go under "reviews."  This will enable the question feature to remain just that.

[Kaushi]

Great news..

[Johnvb]

I have been using this with great success this week in Sri Lanka on holiday. Is there the ability to archive questions to save people re- posting?

[JeslynL]

Not anything like that currently, @Johnvb. But for any suggestions and/or feedback that you have, you are encouraged to share it with in-app by selecting "Send Feedback" or via the Feedback and Feature Requests board where you can describe your suggestion in details. 🙂

[راضي]

In this post I want to say thank you Google maps for the new update its amazing 

[Briggs]

After two months of the Q&A feature being live, I have to give a little bit of feedback. Some of it I might repeat because I must've responded when it first initially came out. With it now being a bit more familiar, I can give some better feedback.

• There are so many people, probably about 30% of the time when I get the notification are not asking anything that requires questions or answers. In fact, most of them are comments about how well the restaurant served them or if they had crappy staff, or anything else. I think the Questions and Answers heading should be renamed Discussions and Questions, or something along the lines of acknowledging comments.
• I'm still getting the notification of places that someone has a question to that I've actually never really visited. Most of these are when I take the photo of the place and pass through, so I don't really know anything in the inside. Can we just limit these notifications in places where we have written a review/rating?
• Not too fond with the current reporting method and process, it actually has to take time to load.
• I really recommend the ability for legitimate reviews to be reported to the team/reviewers, since some of the options are limited/unclear.

I haven't really answered many questions because I don't know the language or tone that I should be answering these questions, and neither should I be like a spokesperson (someone once commented on one of my answers asking if I were an employee of the Department of Immigration and Border Protection, which is an eerie privacy issue). And I don't really find it as valuable as it should've been, correct me if I'm wrong. People asking for the 'closing' time when it's already there. Or the fact that it doesn't use in-built spell checks in the Android version (I think).

I would like to see instances where questions and answers have actually helped to a greater, critical degree, if applicable.

[Sagir]

its good addition to the app. but some people ask meaningless questions.

[SPTN]

As an administrator of enterprise SEO, with over 200 retail locations, I'm of the opinion that this feature is valuable but answers should be exclusively for the business owner to address.  In my experience with this so far Local Guides, imo because they are incentivized with 3 points per answer, are eager to level up.  Rarely does the business owner get a chance to reply before an eager Local Guide publishes an answer of their own observations and opinions.  I understand that crowdsourcing information can be helpful to strengthen search results, but in this case, I give Google Q&A a big fat FAIL.  

[Gabisdaddi]

"When you ask a question, we’ll send it to business owners and other people who know about the place"

The questions I've been getting have been ludicrous. For example, to Walmart in Temple, PA: "do you have sale chainsaw" and "How do I order a bike to be delivered to this store". To the Sam's Club across the street from that Walmart, " I need a electric generator 5,000 watts or 10,000 watts" and " I am looking for a folding day bed".

So, yeah, no, I don't think so. Nobody at Walmart or Sam's is checking these questions.

[ProfArunCM]

@lisawang

what about the same on iOS? 

@Gabisdaddi @SPTN @Sagir @Briggs 

[MartijnO]

90% of the questions I get (as a Local Guide) are for the business owner OR can be answered by checking the website of the location of just use Google. 

I don't see any additional vallue for this questions/answers. 

[Gabisdaddi]

Here's a great Google Question about a local restaurant: "Outstanding place to eat or drink waitresses are pilite n take care of your every need."

Really? Isn't there some way we can filter bad questions just like we can filter bad pictures? I would think that higher level Local Guides should have the opportunity, should they so wish, to clean this stuff up. I know I *absolutely* would, even without earning point.

[Gabisdaddi]

...and where's the kudos capability on these posts?

[JulienH]

Really hope the UI/UX can be improved so it is much clearer what is the purpose of the Q&A section, and who is going to reply. Business owners do not reply to it and that is a misunderstanding for many normal google maps users.

[IvanLondon]

@lisawang

Hi Lisa,

Hope you are well. 

Here is a new potential enhancement idea for ‘Questions & Answers’ - let’s create a new section for all questions that each of us are asked within the ‘Your Contributions’ section.

WHY: all of us are getting a notification when a new question is asked. Sometimes we can answer it straight away and that’s easy. However in case (1) we don’t have time to look at that question at that very moment or (2) we don’t know the answer, but we plan to be at that place later, then it would be cool if we could find all these questions somewhere in one place. As at the moment after your swipe/open that notification, that question just disappears.

SOLUTION: let’s create a new button/section ‘Detailed questions’ aside the existing ‘Simple yes/no questions’ within the ‘Your Contributions’ section (as per below mock-up):

@LuisRG your opinion would be much appreciated too

Best,

Ivan London 

[LucioV]

Hi @IvanLondon yes, that's useful. Sometimes i lose questions that i would love to answer later. I think this should go in a separate FR thread.

[IvanLondon]

Hey @LucioV cool, thanks, glad you’d find this useful too!

As you’ve suggested, I’ve also posted this idea within the ‘Feedback and Feature Requests’ section (even quoted you there, as you’ve summarised it perfectly, hope you don’t mind 🙂

Ivan London

[JulienH]

@lisawang I feel that all these normal users out there are using this function like a casual q&a service, but the frivolous questions are clogging up the list and making the overall quality of questions very poor. 

Similar to other LGs, we think this needs to be managed better. Either boost overall quality by encouraging higher quality of questions, or redesign the interface to be more ephemeral.

Right now I will liken this to an blogpost anonymous comment section, in the old era where there was no ranking of higher quality users or submissions. 

[SPTN]

Today we have 7 LG answering the very same question with the very same answer.  Why?  Because LG's are incentivized through a point system to participate.  I represent the business, why would I chime in now to answer the question on behalf of the business?  There is no indication of "official answer from the business"   Further the LG's have no knowledge of our official position relating to the question asked.  We are of the opinion that Q&A is very poorly executed and although crowdsourced information is useful in some cases, this is a big fail.  Please share/escalate to the Q&A team at Google.

[راضي]

Hello everyone I know what everyone mean

Q&A to me its not useful some time we face some bad words or some one write what he like or any thing

And iam reply to those people by saying this is for questions and answers and as everyone knows we are here to help each other in order to help millions of people around the world

Thank with kind regards 

[YK1001]

Hi @SPTN,

Are you Owner of Claimed Business?

If yes, will you consider to use the Posts feature to post official answers to commonly ask questions?

The Q&A section is a good resources for Owners to know what clients want to know about a business.  And it also let the Owners know how clients are answering them.

I fully agree the Owner's answer should be properly highlighted.

[SPTN]

Yes I am primary owner of all of our business locations.  Posts is a great feature as well but no, we won't use Posts as a work around to augment the shortcomings of Q&A.  Thanks for responding to my message.

[SPTN]

how do we give kudo's here?  has that option been removed?

[Gabisdaddi]

@SPTN I agree, but insofar that I think people are using the system incorrectly. For example, just when the Q&A system went online I was about to go to Clyde Peeling's Reptiland in Pennsylvania, a place I'd only read about prior to that day. I asked on Q&A how long did people think it took to go through the facility. In my opinion, this is EXACTLY the the type of question that Google forsaw that the system be used for. Not for people using Q&A to ask Walmart "how much is ps4".

Q&A is certianly NOT the store's customer service, and way too many people are using Q&A as such.

[ProfArunCM]

What about on iOS device? Why not it be rolled out together? Even new badge system is not made available to everyone? I think it is not availabe even to anyone, it has been withdrawn. What fellow LG Friends think about it? 

@lisawang @Gabisdaddi @SPTN @YK1001 @راضي 

[YK1001]

Hi @SPTN,

For threads started by Googlers, they have wide options to control what kind of interactions be allowed in the thread.  So it is normaly for you to find Reply / Kudo are not there.

Technically, we are posting comments to the open post only - not replying to each others' comments.  But we just abusing it to reply to each other anyway.

[SPTN]

Hello @Gabisdaddi

Gabisdaddi mentioned you in Local Guides Connect

Not for people using Q&A to ask Walmart "how much is ps4".  Q&A is certianly NOT the store's customer service, and way too many people are using Q&A as such.

I couldn't agree more!

[nicksrose]

Hi everyone,

I'm Nick, the new PM on Place Q&A as Lisa has rotated to a different team. 

First, I want to thank everyone for their feedback and suggestions. This is very helpful and we are listening and working on ways to improve Q&A from your comments. Quality is very important for us. 

I'm especially happy with the fact that many of you are willing to help moderate content. Thanks again for all your help!

If you find bugs, see places being spammed, or have other ideas around moderation / clean up / new features, please feel free to post here. I personally check this thread frequently. 

Thanks,

Nick Rose

[Gabisdaddi]

@nicksrose I'll share here the same thing that I said in a different thread regarding photos.

At a certain level, I feel that Local Guides should be able to flag content for deletion. Bad questions, and I use the word questions loosely. Look at Dorney Park & Whitewater Kingdom Amusement Park in Allentown, PA. Here's the latest question for there, "It is so fun and all the rides are free only thing food is to much chash".

At this time, anyone can flag a Google Maps photo that has an issue. While I wouldn't recommend the general public be able to flag Questions, why shouldn't Local Guides be able to flag them? I don't know what level would be the minimum, that's not for me to say. Further, as @SPTN pointed out, there are certainly going to be answers that are inappropriate as well, due to foul language or inappropriate content.

Compared to the all the users of Google Maps, the quantity of Local Guides level 5 and higher, (or 6, or 7) is minimal. The higher the tier, the less notifications that someone, some people, are going to have to handle.

This would also be just another incentive to being an LG. Yesterday I was in a Sam's Club taking pictures for Maps and a couple thought I was sending them to my wife. I explained what it was for and showed them my contributions page and they were fascinated that people could volunteer their time to improve Google Maps to make it a better tool for everyone and then they thanked me!

[Gabisdaddi]

...oh, and one more thing. There really does need to be a way for the business itself to be recognized if they are the one answering the Question.

[nicksrose]

@Gabisdaddi -- businesses are currently recognized if they answer a question. They have a blue icon as in this picture (Waverly Antique Bazaar):

Also, logged in users (local guides included) can flag and report questions using the 3 dot menu next to each Q&A. Is that what you mean by flagging?

[Gabisdaddi]

Then I've never seen an owner respond, and, honestly, I never noticed the menu option to report the question.

I sit corrected! 😄

[Gabisdaddi]

Ok, so returning to the amusement park. Someone posted a question "parking". That's it. One word. Am I the only one who finds this unacceptable? What would I report that as? It doesn't seem to fall into one of the seven offered categories but it *certainly* doesn't seem appropriate to leave it there. Am I just hoping for too much for people to use some semblance of a sentence? "What's the parking there like?"

[Briggs]

One additional thing. I get notifications quite a bit along the lines of "Someone has a question about __________, can you help?" Once I click into the notification, about 20% of them show "This question was removed." It's either the filters working or it deletes it right after it finds that it's an invalid question.

A notification should not go through if it is filtered out. And when I get the notification, there's already seven answers to it, this usually happens with massive department stores. The local Costco Wholesale has the question "do you sell beds" and there are six responses saying yes, and four responses saying no. Majority rules.

Absolutely agree with all of Gabisdaddi's feedback as well. It's silly to read one-word, non-capitalised, grammar-absent "questions" because it makes the business and maps listing look really dull. I wonder if GMB owners are able to disable the Q&A feature.

[راضي]

 Thanks to all for sharing your knowledge 

Best regards 

[Sagir]

this is great. nice job. @lisawang

[Johnvb]

Thanks for the great discussions above and for help @nicksrose

The more I use this feature the more I feel it is inappropriate for the maps/local guides community.

I think questions should be limited to listings where an owner has claimed the business and will get an opportunity to reply. It is too difficult to explain over a short amount of text to people the features and purpose of the questions feature.

I am getting increasingly inappropriate questions which are more akin to 'feedback'. See the example pasted below.

[Gabisdaddi]

[Belén_G]

I agree with @Johnvb A feature that could be helpful it's turning into another feedback option. I don't know if it would be useful to make people read some guidelines before writing the questions, because people seem to be posting complaints, feedback or just random text in this.

[SPTN]

I agree with @Johnvb and @Belén_G 

1) we rarely receive notifications of pending questions, we typically are notified when someone else answers

2) the majority of the answers are unhelpful and clearly for the sole purpose of Local Guides incentivized badge system.

[Gabisdaddi]

@Johnvb is just reiterating, more colorfully, what I have already said. I think the the issue is that the Joe Q Public doesn't know, doesn't care, what the idea behind the system is. They just get their own idea of it and go from there. I still feel the system as a whole is tremendously valuable. Maybe what is needed is a better introduction to it, so Joe Q better understands what it is, how to use it and how to make it work for them. Bad question: Asking when time a movie starts. Good Question:Asking how long it takes them to walk through a museum with three kindergarten age kids. Only people who have been there and experienced that museum can have any inkling of an answer.

[Gabisdaddi]

As long as I'm here, there is something else on my mind. We have the ability to mark an answer as Helpful. Why is there not a choice for Not Helpful? For example, there is a place near me that is undergoing significant renovations and there is a Question this morning about it. One of the Answers says that the place is going out of business, which they are not and there are dozens of articles that I can show you online as proof. Should my only option be to Report the answer for false information?

[Johnvb]

Just another reply on this topic! I live in a remote area of Australia where there are disadvantaged people. I've posted an example below of a question I've just answered politely directing them to delete it due to the personal pubic nature of the inquiry. 

Unfortunately I think people do not understand the purpose of this questions feature and it could result in important personal inquires being left unanswered. The other day some asked an 'urgent question' if security could help them in a specific department store... Hate to think what happened

[lonelyfairie]

This feature needs a good "This is not a question" reporting option ASAP.

Also I am super annoyed by the "I don't know" replies (especially when this are made by 6+ local guides) and should be able to report those as Unhelpful. I mean literally all they answer is I don't know, have no idea or something of the sort, not even: I don't know, but you could check their website/call them and find out.

If you can mark something as helpful you should have the option to mark such answers as the opposite. 

Just as with the editing process where less moderation/approval is required for higher local guides, same thing should apply for questions/answers.

Also thumbs up to those proposing that you only get the "someone has a question" for places that you have either reviewed or at least visited, also have the option to turn off questions for either all or some places. 

Eg. I live in Argentina, last year I was on a trip to New York, not I get almost daily notifications for someone asked a question about Port Authority Bus Terminal... most of those I can't answer and the volume of questions for such a place is enormous! 

It would also be helpful to have a confirmation dialog when submiting a question asking the person wether this is a question or a review and advising them that owners may never respond and the questions are geared more for peer consumers, some business aren't even claimed so that alone would probably make people think twice before posting.

Also report private information being disclosed for inmediate hiding at least, as the example someone posted before about asking for a license after a DUI with you full name on there (facepalm).