The Problem With Giants is They Can’t See Their Feet

For what feels like an eternity I have been dealing with what should have been a minor issue with a quick resolution from Google. Instead Google has become a weighty giant with millions, maybe even billions, of bots crawling the internet, deciding what is important for people, and offering poor customer service when the few real people remaining on the internet have an issue.

On a business’s Google Business Profile it informs the business that the best way to gain trust and ranking is to get reviews and then provides a link to share with customers. I did this in a service follow-up message. The response was amazing. We gained over 20 reviews in a month, but then something went wrong. Reviews started to disappear. It was a few at first and I thought nothing of it, but then more and more went missing. The current count is at ten, but curiously the new reviews have slowed down dramatically as well. Google is suppressing the truth of my business.

This is all a bug. From the end of March until April 8 Google rolled out a massive update to their systems. During this update something broke with their review monitoring and businesses around the world began losing reviews. There are posts all over Reddit and Google support forums about this exact issue. Google, to this date, has said or done nothing. If this were a critical flaw in Windows or if GTA VI were to release with a major bug those companies would be on it.

Google likely has no idea this issue exists. Google is positioned as the truth of the internet. If you search for the best steak house near you then you are most likely to click on the first result you find and that steakhouse might not be the best. It is the best steakhouse that knows how to follow Google’s rules and give Google what Google wants, which isn’t a delicious steak.

Reviews offer that truth. They expose the reality of real customer experiences with the business, and if there is a bug with Google’s recent update then they need to look into it and get it fixed as soon as possible. The only problem is Google is so segmented and automated that it is unlikely the right people will ever learn this is happening.