Google: A 3.5 Star Company
By Matt McGee on Aug 28, 2009 in Google, Yahoo
Google Maps users have spoken and the verdict is clear: They say Google is a 3.5 star company.
I’ve looked at Google’s local business listing many times before, but don’t think I ever noticed so many reviews until today. I’m sure they’ve been there; I just wasn’t noticing them. After years of looking at the reviews of real estate agents, local restaurants, doctors, and you name it, it cracks me up to see such an enormous, international corporation getting reviewed on its own Maps property. Nice.
And sure enough, the other search engines have reviews, too.
Can’t say I’m surprised that Microsoft is only 3 stars, compared to Yahoo’s and Google’s 3.5 stars.
I made one last check, not on a search engine, but on Merchant Circle. Figured they’d have some interesting reviews in light of their marketing history and customer service issues. But no … no stars showing, only four reviews and one of those is not actually of Merchant Circle. The three reviews MC does have include two 1-star reviews and one 5-star review … for an average of 2.3.
But gasp! … an unverified listing in Google Maps! Who on earth is doing SEO for Merchant Circle and let that slip? Yikes.
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6 Comment(s)
By Dickster on Aug 28, 2009 | Reply
Matt,I love the 1500 citations that Google has attached to their listing. I’ve never seen that many before. Looks like they have set the table in their favor.Great article keep em coming.
By Mike Ramsey on Aug 28, 2009 | Reply
I wonder if what would happen if someone tried to hijack their listing.
I got curious with how many citations were showing up and started looking through the list. Some Interesting things.
Each one of the sub domains. (for example)
http://www.investor.google.com has a citation link, under the privacy section. So, every new subdomain could count as a new citation.
Google (on a lot of citations on their own site) are coding them in but not full micro- hcard.
Also, most of their citations did not have a link on the company name.
And the address listed as Google Inc. bla bla bla located in Mountain View, Ca were showing up pretty nicely as citations.
And when I tried to go past page 10 I kept getting kicked to This Link
By Chris on Aug 29, 2009 | Reply
Hahaha!
I love it.
I’m really surprised with Merchant Circle. They do wonderful work with on site SEO, not to mention their work with local listings. How can they fail at their own game?
Facebook is a 3 star
Myspace is a nothing.
By Mike on Aug 31, 2009 | Reply
Interesting post, I’m not surprised that Microsoft has only 3 stars.
By Mark on Sep 7, 2009 | Reply
However, it adds some credibility to the overall rating system. If Google was a 5.0-star-only-positive-comments entry – well, who would believe any of this?
By Joel McLaughlin on Sep 9, 2009 | Reply
LOL, that is too funny. I would think they should be at least a 4 star search engine because the only people using their service should prefer it over the numerous other search engines.