HelloJess's post
cancel
Showing results for 
Search instead for 
Did you mean: 

New: bonus points for detailed reviews

Former Google Contributor

When you review a restaurant on Google Maps, do you tell everyone about its must-try dishes? Do you include helpful tips for visitors in your reviews of local landmarks? We have great news for Local Guides who share thoughtful, thorough, detailed reviews: Starting today, they’ll earn you bonus points.

 

Caption: A mobile phone displaying a thank you screen after submitting a detailed review.Caption: A mobile phone displaying a thank you screen after submitting a detailed review.

 

Here’s how it works: Write 200 characters or more in any review, and you’ll get 5 bonus points. That’s in addition to the 5 points each review is worth on its own, plus 1 point for your rating.

 

We know that many of you have written lots of detailed reviews already, so you’ll get bonus points for past reviews, too. (If you don’t see those points right away, don’t worry. There may be a delay before they appear.)

 

We hope you’re excited about bonus points for detailed reviews! Let us know what you think.

203 Comments
Level 9

Hi @HelloJess

Thank you for this interesting information 😃

And I'm happy & excited to learn all my 200 characters past reviews will get bonus points 😍😍😍

🎇🎇🎇(160*5) = 800 Points 🎇🎇🎇

“That's one small step for Google, one giant leap for Local Guides”

My MapsIWe're the World, We're the Local Guides!
Level 10

Thanks @HelloJess will test it later. Anyway, I've already got 403 200+chars reviews as per my new badges! So I expect more than 2000 points only from this feature!

 

Level 9
Hi @LucioV So I expect more than 2,000 points only from this feature! 😎 It's better than nothing 😎
My MapsIWe're the World, We're the Local Guides!

For a review of up to 200 characters, you do not need to give points at all

Level 9

Hi @OlegKostyukevich

Like "Yes", "Good", "Cool", "Nice" 1 word rewiews 🤔 ?

My MapsIWe're the World, We're the Local Guides!
Connect Moderator

Good news for all contributers 

About me | Guiding Star 2020 | Guiding Star 2020 |  | Follow me on Instagram & Follow me on Maps |   | Happy to Help


Please use '@' before the name to tag me.



Level 8

Thnaks @HelloJess for sharing very interesting piece of information...

 

Level 9

Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!! Thank you Jess & Team 🙂

Level 8

Bro @OSAMA , do you like big reviews too?

 

Best regards from Brazil.

 

Level 7

Awesome!! This will get a lot of people to post valid, well-detailed reviews.

Level 7

Lovely feature..

I did it @HelloJess

 

Level 8

Yeach @HelloJess it's awsome. i was try  to write more 200 chr for review and the result get more point, it make more fast to get more lvl in LG contribution. 

Hope can help other person to know about place and information. 

 

Thanks for it.

 

Level 8

Good news! 

 

Anyone got this new breakdown in Contributions Page already?

Level 9

that's great 😍 thanks!

I ❤️ being a local guide! My contributions
My Connect Profile
Level 10

Good news! Google Maps really lacks good and detailed reviews. All these "Nice place" and "Great food, reasonable prices" have no useful information. I have to admit that I wrote such kind of reviews too...

Now I hope things will change

Level 10

@HelloJess wow.. this is a good way to improve the quality of reviews n information shared.

Level 10

I'm glad this has been announced. Sometimes the community might pick up on a little few things as this and so people jump the gun.

 

However, I'm still questioning the points distribution. I don't think an extra 5 points for having more than 200+ characters is meaningful or impactful as it may seem. Someone who just types "Good" with four characters in comparison to someone who just falls short of the 200 characters and writes 198 characters both get the 5 points. I think a spectrum of points needs to be considered.

 

Tapping a rating star only takes one second. Thus, one point. Typing a random short compliment such as "Great food" "Fantastic service" or something random gives you five points. Typing something more than 200 characters with a detailed experience gives an additional five points, for a total of ten. Thus I propose (as previously posted, but modified slightly):

 

  • Review under 40 characters: 1 point
  • Review between 40-79 characters: 2 points
  • Review between 80-119 characters: 3 (+1)points
  • Review between 120-159 characters: 4 (+2) points
  • Review between 160-199 characters: 5 (+3) points
  • Review over 200 characters: 6 (+4) points

But what does the number in the brackets represent? Additional points rewarded for having your review marked as helpful. I believe that the feature is quite underutilised and therefore should probably be rewarded a little bit further. Therefore by introducing a hard cap (that is the maximum amount of additional points that will disallow unruly behaviour and inflation, it can help. Anywho, as always, my two cents worth.

 

Also it's very easy to find out if someone's copying and pasting the same 200+ character review all over and over again, let's hope they will be more inclined for review and reporting. So let's see how this will go.

 

Example of a random 200+ character review:

 

This review is about my experience at the restaurant. It is a good restaurant and there is nice decoration on the wall. I ate the food and the food was very good. The waiter was also good and the time to cook was good time. 

Character Counter.png

Also a character counter would be nice too, like I recently discovered was implemented on Google Translate. Nice!

Level 10

@HelloJess thats a good news for those who are really interested and focus on their detailed review contribution. Bonus points hopefully will reduce the spamming too.

Thanks for the information. 

Level 9

@HelloJess

What about to define a rule for short review below "n" characters to avoid meaningless reviews ?

As Google considere simple words like Nice, Super, Good as full reviews !

My MapsIWe're the World, We're the Local Guides!
Level 10

Caption: A visualisation of the character counter in action, and the outcoming of submitting a detailed review.Caption: A visualisation of the character counter in action, and the outcoming of submitting a detailed review.

Here's an example of a character counter, using Twitter's current implementation that was so hotly contested. It can either use a radial circle that will continue to fill up when a review progresses to 200 characters and therefore ending with a green tick, or just a regular number (e.g. 200/5000) like it is on Google Translate.

Of course I would like these reviews and the premise of potential bonus points to be elusive enough that not everyone will actively seek it. A gradually filling circle would do justice, as it's both confusing and the general population wouldn't know what to do.

 

Note that language and characters (such as Japanese, Arabic, etc) must apply their own special rules, so 200 characters may probably have to do with the way it's translated. But doesn't that always change and subject to improvements?

 

Level 8

@HelloJess Good News All local Guides 😙😙😙

Bannu local guide

That's a great new @HelloJess. Ya @LucioV you are quick in calculating the points 🙂

flagnepal acetreks.gif  - Nepal | YouTube
Level 10

Ok @LucioV you are maintaining LG Point Sheet. Wow that's a good idea to monitor your points.

flagnepal acetreks.gif  - Nepal | YouTube
Level 10

Amazing! I got 52 qualified reviews. 

Level 7

Great 

Level 9

Thanks @HelloJess for sharing new bonus points system. Yes, I am excited about bonus points for detailed reviews! 

Thanks Again ... 🙂 

I ❤️ Bangladesh | Meet-Ups | Achievements | Instagram | My Website
Level 9

Yeah bro @Haruki , am very happy with bonuses everyone love bonus 😉

Thank you @HelloJess :-))))

Level 9

That is real awesome @HelloJess!  I betting it probably won't backtrack will it?  Because I have several reviews that are 200+ characters.

New WriterNew SolutionistGood FriendSuper Popular| 9 Badges so far! | My Connect Profile | My Contributions
Connect Moderator

This is VERY exciting - from the master reviewer badge, I can see many of my reviews were over 200+ characters so glad I was detailed for many 🙂 

Miami, FL | My Profile | #LGMiami | #TeamPixel | #ShopSmall
Level 1

i don't understand local guides connect, what is point anyone help me ,how to use points

Level 8

I saw this new bonus point feature two days ago by my 200 characters over review

Ahasan

 تم تجربتها وانها تعمل وهي اضافه جيده جدااااا ... تعطي تقدير للمرشد وفي نفس الوقت تفيد القارئ بمعلومات اكثر عن المكان ... اتمني التوفيق ومزيد من الاضافات المميزه .... تقبلوا تحياتي 

Level 8

yay this is a great news 1

merci pour l'info   @HelloJess   cest une bonne nouvelle.

Mohamed Ksouri
Level 8

@HelloJess This is such great news... I have always tried to pour my experience in the reviews and now I feel extra rewarded! 🙂

hello level 7! hehe 🙂 

Level 10

C'est une très bonne nouvelle  😀@HelloJess. C'est certain que les commentaires de 3 ou 4 mots ne sont du tout intéressants. Là au moins il y aura un avis plus pertinents. Et ce qui ne gâche rien nous, guides locaux nous aurons des points  en plus.

Connect Moderator

Great news @HelloJess! Will we see this screen also on desktop besides mobile? For me, I write all my reviews on my PC since I have always been an “detailed reviewer.”

 

Will we get the +5 points for each previous 200+ characters review too?

 

Cheers,

Karen

Level 8

I like this update. I hope the quality of the reviews will be higher thanks to this.

I would also support a kind a more sophisticated review point system, like the one written recently by @Briggs

Level 10

exelente, muy bien pensado @HelloJess

CesarRodriguez
Level 8

Love the update, and make me just enjoy to review, 

Foodie Lover, I`m The man behind the pan, love cooking and love to eat. MakanMasak
Level 10

@HelloJess

 

Thank you dear 

We always know that Google team respond to our feedback carefully. 

 

Level 9
A twitter like character counter wheel would be invaluable here. Extra point if you hit 200 exactly.
Level 10

Good info to be aware of - thank you 🙂

Level 8

Yeah got excited when I saw +5 yesterday. Good addition.

Level 6

Nice one

Level 10

@HelloJess

Thanks for sharing.

Thanks for confirming that points will be credited to past reviews too, that is Cool.

One question out of curocity from my side, what is the logic/science behind 200 Characters? Why not 150 or 250 or more,

Hope Character Counter shall be provided soon at the time of writing review, which had been requested by me and other LGs. 

Thanks

@Surjeet14545 @Navimora @Simon_360 @dbateser 

 

Level 8

@HelloJess Thank you. This is reallly a great way to motivate people to write informative and useful reviews.

However, the meaning of character count may vary among different languages. For example, expressing the same thing in Chinese usually takes less characters than in English. It simply because there are only 26 characters in English but 2000-3000 characters in daily Chinese usage. I would say that a 200 characters review in Chinese for a single POI is almost as detailed as a lonely planet article for a place. It would take me 1-2 hours to write a thoughtful review for such length.

Level 8

Hi @Li-Chi,

 

中文評論長度的算法

 

We are waiting for clarification on how length of  reviews in Chinese will be counted.

 

I think it should be fair if we count 1 Chinese word as 5 English characters.

 

How do you think?

Level 10

This is good @HelloJess People can now have good details about the place. Nice move.

Atma Ram