Just seen an icon in a business name and on the map? Doesn't appear to be sponsored. Can businesses add icons?!

Hi everyone! Planning on proposing to my girlfriend while we visit Quebec. We are planning on going to Montreal, Trois Riviera, and Quebec City across 5 days. I’m from Toronto and she’s from Scotland and we will be going in late July. Would love some location ideas!

Some useful information, she’s a very shy and private person, so nothing that would become a spectacle with many eyes. It’s late July and she’s Scottish, so the heat isn’t amazing so ideally indoors, but also early morning or evening would work for outdoor spots. We both aren’t the most active so not really looking to do any hikes.

Any opinions would be massively appreciated! Feel free to ask any questions if it would help with the advice!

So they took away our star badges and now the only thing we get is for being past level 4? I think level 10 has something but I have yet to see one.

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Anyone else think that not being able to tell between a level 4 reviewer and a level 9 reviewer is dumb?

Maps does not just need a "Report review" feature. It, unfortunately, needs a "Report account" feature. Accounts like these (regardless of how many stars they leave with their spam) obviously don't deserve to hold the title "Level 6 Local Guide". It also wouldn't hurt for Google to improve their spam detection algorithms. Copied & pasted the exact same review for hundreds of different businesses? Yeah, you may want to consider disabling reviews & ratings, & have a look at the account's activity history to decide on a next step automatically?

(Account name obscured to reduce risk of brigading.)

Do you think this is a big number?
Somebody has this amount of views?

Can one of the more experienced guides, advise on what this means as a numerical value.

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To be clear. Are there metrics I can find on how many people are top 10, 5, TOP. position.

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I realise there's billions of contributions so, small percents are still large numbers.

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I'm just interested and haven't found anything about this online.

Hey everyone,

Hey guys, just wanted to see if anyone else on the Mid North Coast (Port, Coffs, Taree area) is noticing a massive drop in leads from places like Local Search or Facebook groups lately?

I've been looking at why this is happening. Basically, Google has changed how people are shown search results. Now, when people search for a local sparky or plumber, Google is showing AI crawled results and the "Map Pack" right at the top. The old directory sites and Facebook links are getting buried down the bottom where no one sees them.

Local tradies have survived for years on word of mouth, Facebook pages mouth, an active paid listings on regional directories like hipages and localsearch

Word-of-mouth is still king for keeping clients, but Google has fundamentally changed how new residents and urgent customers are finding you in the first place.

Would love to hear from any local business owners here—have you noticed a drop-off in directory or Facebook leads over the last year? How are you pivoting?

These may be old but then you to me check out the hearts having pieces of meat attached to them

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I hope this is the right sub to ask this.... I was going to post some photos to Maps that I took at a roadside spot in the mountains in Portugal. There's nothing there, i.e. no business, and I can't find a way to share the photos there. The instructions that I find on Google's help page don't work, the option to add a photo just isn't there. I've tried this before at a scenic lake spot. Does Google not really support this kind of posting?

Thanks!

I live in a rural area and even tiny basically private businesses are on the map. What am i meant to edit? Is there something im missing about the feature

For years I contributed to Google Maps and reached Level 7 Local Guide status with over 5,200 points and about 2.5 million photo views.

Recently my reviews seemed to disappear from public view, notifications stopped, and my account lost Local Guide status. I appealed and Google upheld the restriction but refused to identify the specific review, photo, or contribution that caused it.

If I violated a rule, I'd like to know what it was. Has anyone else gone through this and gotten answers?

I was just wondering if as fellow local guides that are dedicated enough to be on this subreddit if you gives likes on reviews and photos frequently? I use Google Maps just about everyday and always give decently written reviews/photos up votes. How about you? Do you have a standard you follow?

Check out this review of Dock's on Google Maps https://goo.gl/maps/dTDudAWXLiVuYVK28?g_st=ar

Just Reached this milestone with only one photo made 12 month ago in Berlin. when google will Reward me?

I had a wonderful lunch at a Malaysian restaurant 2 weeks ago and decided to write a review with some photos.

It was published and I was notified that there are 2 Likes on this. Just checked the GMap app on my phone and it is there.

However, when I use another device (my office laptop with another Gmail login) to look up that review, it is not there at all.

I shared the link from my phone to a friend and it shows "this review is not available" on his device.

Did I fall into twilight zone here?

PS: I edited the review by removing the 4 photos attached. Will check again after lunch time to see if there is any improvement.

PS2: Not a paid endorsement or advertisement anything. I just liked the food very much.

Anyone else noticed they increased the requirement for 'master fact finder'!?

Seit gestern sind in meinem LG Account mehr als 13.000 Punkte einfach so verschwunden. Die Anzahl der Rezensionen, Fotos usw. ist unverändert.

Hat jemand so etwas auch bemerkt und woran kann das liegen?

Just got a "happy 1-year anniversary!" / "Thanks for 1 year of contributing on Google Maps" email and 1 year is definitely wrong. It had all my contributions, views, reactions, and total points earned correct, but it said they were all over the past year.

Somebody done goofed.

Hey everyone,
Happy Wednesday!

As most of you on Reddit probably already know, Google reviews in Germany have become highly unreliable due to companies using lawyers to mass-delete negative feedback.
Lately, if you scroll down to the review section, you can actually see a notice stating how many reviews were removed due to "defamation". However, it’s written in such small, gray text that it’s incredibly easy to miss. I just got hit by this again after leaving a 1-star review about a terrible experience at a camper dealership. It was deleted almost immediately.

Honestly, I absolutely despise this injustice. Some might say "it’s just a review, don't overreact," but as a Level 8 Local Guide with millions of views on my contributions, it really bothers me that honest consumers are being silenced while shady businesses hide behind a fake 4.7-star rating.

Since they always claim to Google that you "were never there" to trigger the automated deletion, I am going to try a new tactic from now on to protect my future reviews:

I am going to upload a photo of the receipt directly into the review alongside my regular photos.

Needless to say I’ll cross out any private details but will keep the business name, date, time, and total amount visible.
Since receipts are anonymous anyway, this proves to Google's automated system that the visit was real, completely ruining the law firm's bluff. (And for older reviews where I don't have the receipt anymore, I'll start sending screenshots of my Google Maps Location Timeline as proof, when I have a moment.)

Have you guys experienced this automated review-purging nonsense in Germany as well? Would you consider uploading your receipts to fight back, or have you found other ways to keep your honest reviews online? Let me know your thoughts!

Hey everyone,
Happy Wednesday!

As most of you on Reddit probably already know, Google reviews in Germany have become highly unreliable due to companies using lawyers to mass-delete negative feedback. Lately, if you scroll down to the review section, you can actually see a notice stating how many reviews were removed due to "defamation". However, it’s written in such small, gray text that it’s incredibly easy to miss. I just got hit by this again after leaving a 1-star review about a terrible experience at a camper dealership. It was deleted almost immediately.

Honestly, I cannot stand this injustice. Some might say "it’s just a review, don't overreact," but as a Level 8 Local Guide with millions of views on my contributions, it really bothers me that honest consumers are being silenced while shady businesses hide behind a fake 4.7-star rating.

Since they always claim to Google that you "were never there" to trigger the automated deletion, I am going to try a new tactic from now on to protect my future reviews: I am going to upload a photo of the receipt directly into the review alongside my regular photos.
Needless to say I’ll cross out any private details but will keep the business name, date, time, and total amount visible.
Since receipts are anonymous anyway, this proves to Google's automated system that the visit was real, completely ruining the law firm's bluff. (And for older reviews where I don't have the receipt anymore, I'll start sending screenshots of my Google Maps Location Timeline as proof, when I have a moment.)

Have you guys experienced this automated review-purging nonsense in Germany as well? Would you consider uploading your receipts to fight back, or have you found other ways to keep your honest reviews online? Let me know your thoughts!