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Comment by Schweigi | Hacker News Reader

Google Business (business.google.com) which is used for managing a business on Google/Google Maps has surprisingly pretty good customer support (for Google :) ). There is an option to request help and when you decline all the automated answers it's possible to send a text to a real person. Up to now all requests to remove reviews, photos, or previous/old business listings have been resolved in 2-3 business days.

In order to remove a review on Google Business it needs to be fraudulent or outdated - e.g. the business has been remodeled and the review doesn't apply anymore. But the list has over 10 different categories on why a review can be removed. So in reality I would say it's probably possible to remove any review. The customer for Google is the business, not the user as Google is promoting GoogleAds to local businesses so they need to keep them "happy" to increase Ad spend.

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Discalaimer: I used to work on the Google team that worked on anti-abuse for comments/ratings.

>> So in reality I would say it's probably possible to remove any review

No, it is possible to get something removed if it violates Googles policies that are designed to make sure reviews are on topic and legitimate.

>> The customer for Google is the business, not the user as Google is promoting GoogleAds to local businesses so they need to keep them "happy" to increase Ad spend.

Not true at all. I have personally told many clients who spent XXX million dollars with Google that reviews can not be touched if they follow Google policies. The customer is not the business, it is the users who trust these reviews. Google can do just fine without monetizing the reviews but will not survive without user trust. It will take 2 hours to become a global headline if Google did something like this. And if this was true no business would every have bad reviews.

Not saying you are not honest, but for others it is hard to verify a throwaway account. Or trust, for that matter, if all comments posted so far are made fiercely defending Google practices.

Suppose you left Google for a google-affiliated Reputation agency, then your disclaimer would be correct, but your comments might be fishy. No way to know. In a general sense I wonder how many of such agencies operate on HN to give positive twists to discussions that may hurt brand image.

I've found it almost impossible to remove bad reviews on Google. We've had several drive-by 1 star reviews from people in different countries that have zero relation to our business.

It's even hard to get 5 * reviews removed. They aren't allowed for consumer finance co's in Canada but we still couldn't get them removed.

Did you use the report functionality or did you go through support? If the review has no relation to your business it’s a clear violation of the review policies and you can report it. For us nothing happened after reporting such reviews and only after contacting support they got removed.

Interesting! Definitely not something I've read about often.

Yes. This is an understanding I buy:

  Algorithmic/Systemic upward review pressure: easily removed/prevented reviews.
  Alignment problem: money comes from business, not user.

This is a satisfying understanding of why things are the way they are.

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