Andy Simpson noticed last night that there is a new review summary format on Google My Business listings. So far, I’m only able to see this on the Google Maps app.
Below is an example of what it looks like. The 3 reviews that are highlighted are reviews that contain common words that show up in several reviews. Unlike the extremely mysterious ones that Google normally picks, it’s a bit easier to understand how these ones get selected and featured.
On browsers on mobile & desktop, I’m still seeing the old format that still highlights 3 reviews but they are the same ones we’ve seen historically and don’t match the new format showing on the Google Maps app.
Personally, I’m a big fan of this change and I hope they roll it out across all devices. In the past, the reviews that were highlighted seemed very random and were not always the best summary of the experiences with the business. We also tracked several cases that didn’t change over the course of over a year even though the company had received tons of new reviews. It appears as if the new format will do a better job of giving a current picture of the business since it includes newer reviews and looks for overall trends.
