Apex Internet Blog

TripAdvisor Pulls Reviews From Google Place Pages

Last week we witnessed the removal of TripAdvisor hotel and restaurant reviews from Google Places pages.  

The missing TripAdvisor hotel and restaurant reviews have been associated with a recent Google update to their search results layout.  The integration of Google Places listings with the organic listings, plus changes to the display of the Google Places pages, such as making images and reviews more prominent, apparently have not rested well with TripAdvisor, whom are said to have thought that Google Places use of reviews does not help users with selecting the best hotel. 

As first released by Tnooz on the 8^th of December:

Google is no longer able to stream in reviews from TripAdvisor to Places pages after the user review giant blocked it. TripAdvisor confirmed the move today in an email, stating that while it continues to evaluate recent changes to Google Places it believes the user does not benefit with the “experience of selecting the right hotel”.

“As a result, we have currently limited TripAdvisor content available on those pages,” an official says.

An update from Greg Sterling of Search Engine Land on the 13^th December acknowledges that TripAdvisor reviews are once again appearing for hotel and restaurant Google Places listings. 

There seems to be delicate balance between the amount of content Google Places listings stream in from sites like TripAdvisor and how that affects their direct traffic.  But then there is also the view point that Google offers a powerful marketing medium for businesses with reviews from sites like TripAdvisor with a Places page. 

Going back to Google’s latest search result display update mentioned above, many local online retailers have become irritated by the fact that Google seems to be promoting their own services above competitors and by the fact that listings to their actual websites often fall beneath their Places listing.  Google’s Carter Maslan, Director of Product Management, has this past Monday released a post about how local search works to provide users with the best answers possible for their search query.

As more information comes to light over the disappearing TripAdvisor reviews we will keep you posted.

Categories: Search
Posted on: 14th Dec 10 by Jessica Frandsen
Post Comment

Name:
Email:
Comment:
Please Enter This Verification Code: