Google Maps adds reviews and ratings

Google Maps has created a facility that allows users to add reviews and ratings for listed businesses.

The search giant's maps site has long aggregated consumer views from reviews sites around the web, but now allows users to add their own views directly on the map.

The addition takes Google further in to the realm of consumer-created intelligence, which has seen the popularity of sites like TripAdvisor skyrocket.

But the extent to which users seeking businesses go to a maps site, rather than a dedicated listings directory like Yell, is open to question.

"Google Maps has offered a collection of reviews assembled from some of the finest sources on the web for some time," wrote Google Maps engineer Jonathan Goldman.

"But now we're augmenting those with reviews from an even better source: you -- and, we hope, millions of other opinionated Google users."

Users are able to add their review inside the bubble that opens up when a map marker is clicked upon.

Goldman continued:

"Tell the world all about your favorite (or least favorite) doctors and dentists, hotels, bakeries, hardware stores, salons, pet spas, auto mechanics, plumbers, and more. Or perhaps even your favorite restaurant in Tokyo ."

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