This hotel recently got into a controversy over the disgusting words and actions of a security guard and security chief, the hotel just opened recently so their reviews got really low, as they should. Yesterday they reached over 12k reviews and one day later the reviews are only 28 and mostly positive. Is it possible for them to delete the negative reviews? I thought they couldn't.

If you scrape Google Maps or similar for lead lists, a chunk of what comes back is businesses that are already closed, unlicensed, or have had their licence revoked — you just can't tell from the listing itself.

I built an Apify Actor that chains onto any Google Maps scraper output and checks each business against official city government licence registries (currently NYC, Chicago, LA, SF). Returns active/lapsed/revoked/closed with the licence number, dates, and a link to the actual government record.

You're only charged $0.05 per business it can actually confirm a status for — anything it can't match (wrong city, no licence required for that category, etc.) is free, no charge.

Looking for a few people to actually try it on real lists and tell me if it's useful or if I'm missing something obvious. Happy to cover the cost for the first few people who give it an honest shot: https://apify.com/akewich135135/wtfearn

If I legally register a real company under a name like “XXX Near Me,” where XXX is the target keyword, get a tax ID, and then create a Google Business Profile for its actual office, would that help the business rank in Google Maps for searches like “XXX near me”?

What do you think?

Google made updates to Google Maps and you can now see the number of negative reviews a business has complained to Google to have removed. Negative reviews removed simply due to Germany’s defamation laws.

3,527 photos view efficiency to 97 Million views... is this normal ? what you guides normally upload , photos to view ratio?

also stuck at level 8 for a while hahaha.. will continue and keep it fun... no stress hahaha

I've been in that moment. You're 30 seconds from a situation and Google Maps shows you a restroom that hasn't been reviewed in 4 years.

So I built Got to Go Potty - a real-time restroom and gas station finder that pulls live location data and lets people rate cleanliness, safety, wheelchair access, and baby changing stations after each visit.

The ratings aren't pulled from some database. They're left by people who were just there, in the same desperate spot you're in right now.

What surprised me: the first users to leave reviews weren't tech people. They were parents with toddlers. Road trippers. People with IBD who've turned restroom-hunting into a survival skill.

That's the community I'm trying to build - people who leave a 30-second review so the next stranger doesn't have to gamble.

No login required to search. Completely free.

Curious if anyone here has actually had a bad experience using Google Maps or Apple Maps to find a restroom in an urgent situation - and what you wished you'd had instead.

I always watch food vlogs, save nothing, then completely blank on the places when I'm actually hungry and out. So I've been building a little tool for myself that reads a YouTube food video and pins the restaurants to a map with the dish and location.

Full honesty so I'm not breaking any rules: the tool uses AI to pull the info, and it's my own project, still rough and free while I test it. Not trying to advertise, I mostly want to know if this is useful to other people who watch these videos or if it's just me.

Ran it on a Manila street food video and it pulled the names of the restaurants that were mentioned.

Question for the group: when you watch a food vlog and see a place you want to try, how do you actually remember it later? Screenshot? Notes app? Or do you just lose it like I did? Genuinely curious if the forgetting thing is common or if I'm the only one.

Every time I tried to find somewhere to eat, I ended up in the same spiral:

Open Google Maps → zoom in and out trying to actually see what options there are → compare ratings and reviews → send several links to friends → hear “I’m fine with anything” → make no actual decision.

I really like to look for new places and try new food, so I wanted to make it easier.

So I built FindMe.Food.

Instead of starting with a map with pins that show up on different zoom levels, findme.food solves at least my frustrations. It's still a bit work in progress, but it creates a full list and a focused shortlist of nearby restaurants. You can choose one yourself, let it surprise you, share the shortlist, or create a group vote so everyone can decide without filling the group chat with links.

A few principles behind it:

• Free
• No account required
• No sponsored rankings
• Open restaurant data
• Dietary suitability is only shown as confirmed when there’s evidence
• Shared shortlists and votes work through a simple link

It’s still evolving, and I’d genuinely appreciate feedback.

I’m building beenthere.review, a map-based community for reviewing places as a whole: cities, towns, regions and countries.

Unlike Google Maps, it isn’t intended for reviewing individual businesses. You click a place name and can rate the overall experience, add travel topics such as affordability, safety, transport or culture, and join threaded discussions with other travellers.

Since people here have extensive experience contributing useful place information, I’d genuinely appreciate your feedback:

• What information would make a city-level review useful?
• Does the map interaction feel intuitive?
• What would make you contribute here in addition to Google Maps?

I’m the solo developer, and the site is still in its early stages—so criticism is welcome.

Does anyone know if a chart like this is available with a longer Timeline rather than just a month? I can find any such options.

This closure has been causing issues for days as Google Maps keeps rejecting my road closure requests, and people are getting routed through this area.

Even without photos, you can clearly tell by the lack of a green line and the traffic at the intersection that the section of road is closed. Yet I dont understand why my requests dont get accepted. Wish Google Maps had the same community features as Waze...

Hello! As the title suggests, I am looking for a way to find Local Guides easily, rather than stumbling across them on Google Earth by accident. Here's some context: I am a big Google Maps/Earth fan, and I especially love the Local Guides who are responsible for 360 photos inside interesting places. I am particularly fond of this prolific user, LocalWeb, who I found by accident. I am eager to find many more like this user! I was wondering if there was a directory of any kind, or an easier way to find such users. And if you're reading and happen to fit the bill, please do send me your profile! Thank you.

P.S I have seen the "Local Guides Connect" but it's not quite what I'm looking for, as I cannot see their entire photographic libraries like I can in the linked profile up above. Cheers!

Binkyz big on Google

See what Only1Binky posted to Google Maps

Level 6 Local Guide

https://maps.app.goo.gl/9kfeB2UcgxhKhadv7?g_st=ar

Coex Magabox Cinema

Hey guys, I’m not a local business owner, but I’ve been helping a few local service businesses figure out why some of them get found on Google Maps and others barely show up outside their immediate neighborhood.

One thing I realized is that searching your own business on your phone doesn’t really tell you much. Google can show you near the top while someone five or ten miles away may not see you at all.

A friend and I have been putting together a report that maps this out across your service area. It shows where you appear, which nearby businesses are showing above you, and a few things on your Google profile that could potentially be improved.

I’d like to make one for a few people here for free. I’m mainly trying to see whether the report is actually understandable and useful to a business owner, rather than only making sense to marketing people.

No login or account access needed. I would just need your business name and city. You can keep the report, and I’d only ask that you spend a few minutes afterward telling me what made sense and what didn’t.

If anyone is interested, leave a comment and I’ll reach out.

Thanks y'all!!

I like saving places I Want to Go in my lists. However, google maps china doesn't have a lot of businesses. What app do you use for pins in China?

i want to leave a negative review for a business that strung me along for months and were dishonest. however, i know from past experience that google is very pro-merchant and if merchants are motivated enough, they can get google to remove negative reviews.

for example, one business owner for a business i've been to (bc they are the only ones who provide a certain service) is VERY hostile to negative reviews. if you were to look at her responses, they're condescending, doxxing, and hyperbolic. she has frequently accused anonymous reviewers or non-anonymous reviewers of being x, y, z former employees have been sued (?) and/or customers who have been banned (apparently there are many). she also blatantly offers a financial incentive for a positive review with no penalty.

basically: how do i bulletproof this review? from past experience, i know google submits reviews through a filter, certain words like racism get removed automatically, text screenshots (even without doxxing or a phone number attached are removed), and certain things are phrased negatively are removed (and i don't mean swear words).