This is really really not true. I did a local comparison any Google map reviews were REALLY REALLY bad whereas Yelp knew what the good restaurants were. Not even close, at least in my area.
How useful yelp is varies enormously if you travel. In the U.K., as an example, Yelp can feel like a wasteland - often little or no reviews, and it has nothing like the mindshare it enjoys in the US. As a result many businesses do little or nothing to keep the information on their Yelp page accurate, it’s barely even on their radar. In the US one can often use Yelp almost as a verb in a conversation (“let me Yelp us somewhere for lunch...”), this is met with blank stares in much of Europe in my experience.
The lack of good data on Yelp in the U.K. has indirectly hurt other players there too, when Apple maps first launched business location information was largely drawn from Yelp, which basically seeded Apple maps with very bad information. Locations were wrong, many businesses that simply didn’t exist anymore would appear. Granted it’s been years since I last checked, but in the first few years of Apple map’s operation it was a pretty significant issue. This methodology worked great in Cupertino I guess...
Seconding this. Yelp reviews have their problems but at least there's always content in the review and I can validate some of the reviewer's reputation if they're being suspiciously positive/negative in their review. Most google ratings I see have very few reviews behind them, and most of them are under a sentence long.
Someone once gave 5 stars to a business project that I had created but never launched (no business, product or service with zero customers) but which had a Google Business listing. I suspect people routinely fake review places to inflate their egos but also because Google offers them real benefits.
Why not? Some cemeteries around here are beautiful, and worth visiting. Plus like any other public service, they can be badly run, and it might be worth warning others who are planning to be buried there about it.
Doesn't hurt to have the option, I guess. If a place doesn't need reviews then it probably doesn't care about bad reviews, and sometimes the reviews are useful nevertheless or at least funny.
While I use google reviews more often than other review sites, I know it is a problem. A big chunk of the issues has to do with the whole "local guide" or whatever its called program. People are incentivized to leave reviews anywhere they can because it makes them seem prestigious, so they spam all the restaurants they've not been to or don't care for with negative reviews. This is also a rampant issue for tourist destinations, entertainment locations, local businesses, etc.
Google maps does not show all entries. I stopped trying because restaurants would show or not show based on zoom and other factors unknown to me. It’s not rating or ads.
It’s really frustrating as sometimes searching for “Mexican restaurant” won’t include all Mexican restaurants in the map area. And will include random weird stuff. And it won’t show the top items.
