New Google Algorithm: The Ultimate Spam Fighter

New Google Algorithm: The Ultimate Spam Fighter

Google recently created a new review algorithm geared at removing fake reviews from local listings in Google Maps and Google Search. The search company says it works better and faster, and it helped remove 45 percent more fake reviews than in 2023. The need to create the algorithm arose when the search company received many contributions to its local listings.

More so, Google said it receives about 20 million contributions in its Google Maps and local listings per day on Maps. Those include reviews, updates to listings, and photos, among other things, many of which are fake. 

The New Algorithm

Google launched the new algorithm in 2023 to detect and remove fake reviews faster and more effectively in Washington, D.C., and worldwide. The search company explained that the algorithm is a machine learning algorithm that detects questionable review patterns faster. Furthermore, the algorithm looks at longer-term signals daily; for example, a business in D.C. suddenly receives a spike in one or five-star reviews. 

How the New Algorithm Works

Google explains that the new algorithm works to catch broader attack patterns, but one-off cases are not left out either. For instance, some scammers claimed that they could connect people to high-paying online tasks like clicking ads for a token. The algorithm was able to quickly identify the surge in suspicious reviews due to its ability to continuously analyze patterns.

Some patterns that the algorithm recognizes include an account previously posting reviews or a reviewer leaving the same review on multiple businesses. Once the algorithm recognized these patterns, human investigators used them to analyze reports from merchants who saw a spike in fake five-star reviews.

Then, using those patterns, Google was able to refine the algorithm and get rid of more fake reviews. At the end of the exercise, the search company had successfully removed five million fake review attempts related to this scam alone.

Metrics Used in Fighting Fake Reviews

Annually, Google releases certain metrics on how it fought fake contributions and reviews to local results in Google Maps and Search. These metrics include the following:

• Blocking or removing over 170 million policy-violating reviews in 2023, which is an increase in what the company removed in 2022;
• Removing and blocking over twelve million fake business profiles;
• Blocking at least two million attempts to claim business profiles that were not theirs, which is one million more than it removed in 2022 and
• Removing up to 14 million policy-violating videos in 2023, 50 percent higher than what the company removed in 2022.

The number of policy-violating photos Google released this year was much higher than what they released last year. Furthermore, the search company changed the determining factors for fake business profiles from creating to claiming fake profiles.

Conclusion: Why This New Algorithm Is Important

Marketers in DC often have to deal with spam and fake information while searching on Google, and it can be such a hassle. As a marketer, you certainly do not like being hit with spam, and no business likes fake reviews on its business listings. Therefore, this new fake-review-eliminating algorithm that Google created could not have come at a better time.

“While Google’s efforts at reducing spam efforts are recognized, it is still a cat-and-mouse game,” says Bill Fukui of MedShark Digital. Scammers are often developing new ways to scam people, and they get away with it until someone finds them out. Likewise, the more Google creates techniques to prevent or reduce spam, spammers are also looking for ways around those efforts.