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Google has removed outside customer reviews from Google Places, its website that offers details and recommendations for local businesses, and has replaced them with an option for users to add their own reviews.
Google Places, which was known as Hotpot when it was introduced last fall, previously featured preview snippets of customer reviews from sites like Yelp, Citysearch, and TripAdvisor. But Avni Shah, Google's director of product management, said in a blog post that the decision was "based on careful thought about the future direction of Place pages, and feedback we've heard over the past few months."
Critics had charged that Google was building Google Places as a competitor to sites like Yelp by using snippets of content from Yelp itself.
Some websites, such as TechCrunch, have theorized the move might be related to last month's announcement of the U.S. Federal Trade Commission's antitrust investigation into Google's search and advertising practices. Shah's blog post did not make mention of the investigation.
Google said the ratings and review counts on Google Places would only reflect reviews that were written by Google users. It will continue to feature links to other local business search websites.
Google LatLong: The evolution of Google Place pages [Google's Lat Long Blog]
Google Places stops stealing reviews [TechCrunch]
Google "Places" drops outside customer reviews [Reuters]
—Evan MacDonald
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