It seems pretty simple. If Google is interested in improving what many consider the massive problem of fake reviews posted on Google Plus for Business listings (Google Places and Maps) they could separate reviewers by verified and non-verified reviewers.
To verify a reviewer they could use the same process or a similar process to how a business is verified on Google Places. Just send then a code to their cell phone, or send them a letter with that code to their postal address.
Imagine the improvement in quality of reviews! Google could then at least list the city a reviewer is in for the public, and the “reviewer” would then have at least some sense of accountability. In the very near future it is highly likely you will be hearing about businesses suing other businesses over fake reviews (negative in nature) and Google being forced to release IP and other information on a reviewer.
If Google is truly concerned with the value of these reviews, they could implement this in a week. What are your thoughts?
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Have you seen Terillion? They are trying to solve this problem since the big boys in the review space (Yelp, Google, TripAdvisor, etc.) don’t seem to care all that much about verification or authenticity – it’s all about content and ad revenues for them.
Looks like a good idea. But how does it prevent a business from posting fake reviews, and how would it stop a competitor from posting a fake negative review?
I am all for it! We work hard on getting real customer reviews on Google and other sites, and when I see what appears to clearly be fake reviews posted it just tears my pants!
One of the main reasons that fake reviews are so prevalent is because they are so easy to create. Most review sites don’t even require you to be in the same country as the business, let alone have ever visited it. Terillion’s stuff takes care of this huge part of the problem by limiting reviews to only be able to be created on-site, at the point of purchase. As you mention, this doesn’t completely eliminate the possibility of employees or competitors leaving fake reviews of a business, but it makes it a lot harder. In the case of owners or employees leaving fake reviews, businesses are prevented from posting fake reviews partly by contract, but also by Terillion’s reliability index algorithms, which include human eyes double-checking every review, checking phone numbers, unique device IDs, geo-tags, and multiple other data points.
In the case of competitors, if a competitor takes the time to go into the business, and then leaves a nasty review, as long as it doesn’t have obscenities, it may get published. The problem most companies seem to have with reviews isn’t that they get one bad review, it’s that it’s so difficult for customers to leave reviews, that you only get three kinds: super happy customers, super pissed off customers, and fake reviews. Terillion’s biggest goal is to make it easier for customers to leave reviews, so that there are enough reviews out there to provide a fair and accurate representation of the business, not one that is based on a handful of reviews created by the extremes.
Brent, all of that makes great sense. I hope businesses will jump on the band wagon. Are you associated with Terillion or just a huge fan?
I only read reviews or testimonials that are filtered by testimonialshield.com. I have seen reviews filtered by TS on Yelp and Google+. Testimonial Shield verifies every review and testimonial weeds out the BS…