If you want to eat somewhere, you first check the reviews on Google Maps. But are these Google Reviews still reliable? Actually not.
Google Reviews Aren’t Trustworthy (And Here’s Why)
Are you planning to eat at a restaurant you’ve never been to? Then you often first dive into the Google Maps reviews on your iPhone. That is simply the fastest way to get a good impression of the eatery you want to go to.
However, you should not just believe everything you read online. Like all information on the internet, Google Reviews are not always reliable. Nowadays, reviews are even purchased. The ‘Honest Guide’ channel discusses this further in the video below.
Buy fake Google Reviews: very cheap
The video shows, among other things, how cheap it is to buy a mountain of (fake) reviews. During the investigation, the YouTube channel managed to obtain the contact details of a writer of fake reviews. In this case it was a boy from Pakistan.
As a test, he had him write several reviews for a lamp on a bridge in Prague. Nonsense actually, but the channel doesn’t want fake reviews written for real restaurants. He paid $40 for the reviews and received 40 reviews. The ‘writer’ did indicate that the price could be lowered even further if you wanted more reviews.
He used AI to create the reviews. AI was again used for the profile photos and various stock photos. The review writer also had access to several real accounts.
This is how you can recognize fake Google Reviews
The purchased, fake reviews are easy to recognize. Because a comment about the food is of course strange with a lamp. But how do you recognize fake reviews at real restaurants?
To be honest, that remains difficult, but if you read carefully and take the time, you can pick them out. It is difficult with a single fake review, but if there are multiple reviews there is usually a pattern. The video shows that each fake review has a single letter as a prefix. The names are also often remarkably simple.
With other fake reviews, the structure of the text is always the same. The text starts with a few positive points and then always ends with a negative point.
According to the video, 10 percent of every review you find is fake. This also means that some restaurants do not have fake reviews at all, and some only do.
In addition, it is wise to read the reviews that do not give 4 or 5 stars. Always check the photos with the reviews for a better impression. Very negative reviews are often overly negative and that also makes these Google Reviews less reliable. But you can use them, as long as you take them with a grain of salt.
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