Google has a new tool that helps find and remove fake reviews on Google Search and Maps. This tool is like a smart detective for reviews. In 2023, it was 45% better at catching fake reviews than in the previous year.
Every day, lots of people add things like reviews and pictures to Google Maps and Search. Google gets about 20 million of these contributions every day! Some people, though, try to trick the system by posting fake reviews.
To stop this, Google created a special computer program (algorithm). This program is like a super smart robot that can quickly find and remove fake reviews. For example, if someone leaves the same review on many different businesses, or if a business suddenly gets a lot of 1 or 5-star reviews, the robot notices and takes action.
Last year, scammers tried to trick people into paying for fake reviews and other online tasks. Google’s robot quickly spotted this and removed 5 million fake reviews connected to this scam in just a few weeks.
Google also shared some numbers about how many fake things it stopped in 2023:
- It blocked or removed over 170 million reviews that broke the rules (up 45% from the year before).
- More than 12 million fake business profiles were removed.
- 14 million rule-breaking videos were taken down.
- It stopped over 2 million attempts by people trying to claim business profiles that didn’t belong to them.
Google is working hard to keep the internet clean from spam and fake information. But it’s not easy, as spammers always try to find new tricks. Google is like a superhero fighting against bad guys on the internet!