Google has been working on improving the product reviews that pop up in Search for quite some time now. Now, it is releasing an update with improved criteria to ensure that product reviews are helpful to the users.
The results on Google Search are now set to
prioritise reviews from users who have bought the product. In-depth reviews
with unique information and comparison with other products are also going to be
prioritised by Google. These changes have currently been only implemented on
the English version of the site.
Via its official blog, Google announced the
update on March 23. The updated criteria are designed to "help ensure
reviews come from people who demonstrate expert knowledge and first-hand
research about products." Now, the product reviews that feature in-depth
details regarding the benefits or drawbacks of the item will get prioritised.
The new criteria will give preference to
reviews with specifics about the product's functions and differences from
previous versions. They should mention unique information that the manufacturer
might have not provided originally. Reviews with information regarding its
merits over comparable products or the differences between similar items will
be preferred over others.
Furthermore, if all the information comes
from reviewers who have used the product and can describe what the product is
physically like, then that review will be displayed in Search.
As mentioned earlier, this update is
currently only live for English language users. Google is planning on expanding
these updates to more languages in the near future.
Google appears to be in the works of
improving its Search experience in general. The US tech giant recently
introduced a 'Delete last 15 min' option to its Android app. This feature gives
Android users the ability to easily delete the last 15 minutes of their search
history.