Watch out Yelp! User reviews now on Google Maps

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Google cares what you think about local businesses and thinks other people do too. The company on Tuesday added a new feature to Google Maps that allows people to post user ratings and reviews of local businesses. The maps previously had professional reviews, but not reviews from users. More information is on the Google Blog.

I must say it was faster to do than writing a review on Yelp or CitySearch and a tad more intuitive than posting a review on Yahoo Maps.

Elinor Mills covers Internet security and privacy. She joined CNET News in 2005 after working as a foreign correspondent for Reuters in Portugal and writing for The Industry Standard, the IDG News Service, and the Associated Press. E-mail Elinor.

Topics:: Search,; Google

Tags:: Google,; maps,; search,; user generated content,; reviews

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Social Aspect to Local Search
by BHB jW July 5, 2007 2:56 PM PDT: Sites such as Yelp have more social aspects built in and one could argue that the status systems these sites have will lead them to realizing better local search results. It will be interesting to see how Google deals with spam and flaming etc.; Reply to this comment

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