Google Updates Search Criteria to Feature Helpful Product Reviews

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.