From reviews and ratings to photos and phone numbers, Google Maps is full of helpful information that connects people with local businesses. That’s why we’ve long invested in technology like AI and highly trained analysts to monitor this information. Here’s a look at how we’re continuously evolving our practices to help keep Business Profile information reliable.
Catching scammers with the help of Gemini
AI has been a pivotal tool in helping us stop scammers in their tracks, and we’re now using it to scale our protections even more. Last year, we removed over 10,000 listings managed by a group of bad actors who impersonated real locksmiths to take over unclaimed Business Profiles and overcharge unsuspecting customers. Beyond removing the fraudulent content, we filed a lawsuit against the bad actors and are actively applying what we learned to enhance our detection systems.
For example, we trained a new model with the help of Gemini that identifies potentially suspicious profile edits. A business that changes its name from “Zoe’s Coffee House” to “Zoe’s Cafe” isn’t suspicious — but a business that suddenly changes its category from “cafe” to “plumber” is. Gemini only needs a few examples to learn what’s suspicious and can apply this knowledge across many business categories and languages. This new model has already helped us block thousands of suspicious Business Profile edits this year.
Fighting fake five-star reviews
An honest five-star review is a great way for customers to show appreciation, but there are some businesses that try to cheat the system by buying fake five-star reviews from people who have never even visited their establishment — this is strictly prohibited by our policies.
AI helps us better detect this kind of dishonest behavior. For example, we can now revisit reviews more frequently to identify new abuse patterns even months after they were originally posted. Plus, we rolled out alerts in the U.S., U.K. and India to let you know if we’ve recently removed suspicious five-star reviews in certain circumstances. These warnings — which will expand globally starting next month — help you understand quickly if a place may be engaging in unfair review practices.