How to find your hidden reviews

Google Maps tips & tricks
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In this post, I would like to explain how you can identify which of your reviews are hidden by Google for policy violations.

Finding your hidden reviews was not made easy by Google! Here are some tips for you.
Finding your hidden reviews was not made easy by Google! Here are some tips for you.4452Ă—2723 839 KB

First, you may want to know how many of your reviews were made private/hidden. I have explained this in detail in these two posts:

Count your hidden contributions on a Desktop

Count your hidden contributions on a Mobile

Let us say you have made 10 reviews in total and only 6 are shown publicly. So the job is to find the 4 hidden reviews among the 10 reviews listed under your contributions.

Here is how to do it:

I recommend you use two devices. On your primary phone, you open your contributions and select reviews. This list should show all 10 reviews you have made.

On the other device, you need to also find your list of reviews. This time without being logged in with your account. Maybe you can borrow a friend’s phone, a tablet or use a desktop computer as the second device. Here is how to do it:

  1. Open Google Maps on your primary phone where you are logged into your Local Guides account
  2. Tap on your profile picture
  3. Tap Your Profile
  4. Tap the Share icon (Top right corner it looks a bit like a < sign)
  5. Tap Copy to Clipboard
  6. Open a messaging app or write an email to share your profile link in the clipboard to the second device. Just paste the link and send the message.
  7. On the second device, you now need to find and click on the link to see your public profile. Tap on Reviews. This should show 6 reviews only.

If you don’t see the 6 public reviews your Google Maps profile is probably set to Restricted. Then (and only then) on your primary phone you should:

  1. In the Google Maps app tap on your profile picture
  2. Tap Settings
  3. Tap Personal content
  4. Scroll all the way down and make sure Restricted profile is set to OFF.

Now you have the two lists in front of you:

The private list with 10 reviews AND the public list with only 6 reviews.

For each of the 10 reviews on your private list, you need to check if the review is also visible on the public list.

All reviews that are only visible on your private list are hidden reviews. Write down the names of the places for which your review is hidden. Continue doing this until you have found all 4 reviews.

This method is easy and quick when you only have 10 or maybe 100 reviews to check. But if you have hundreds or more this process is very slow and boring.

My friend @C_T has described a semi-automated way to do this using Google Docs. It is not very easy and can only be done on a desktop. Find his posthere.

You may not need to find each and every hidden review this cumbersome way. You will soon realize what specific policy violations you typically make. Then you can just read your reviews and edit those that need some fixing.

The review filter will check your review text immediately after you hit Submit after each text edit. So you can keep trying until it goes public. You may need to try several times before you figure out what part or parts of your text triggered the review spam filter.

If you have not yet read my post on Typical Review Violations, now would be a great time :wink:

I hope this helps

Morten

PS: If a lot of reviews are hidden it might not be your fault. Please read Known issue: Unpublished reviews and photos on Google Maps. And, make a reply there and request your account also be investigated.

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@MortenCopenhagen Thanks for sharing this. It is useful.

As you said, when we have contributed a lot more than a few reviews, it will become more difficult to check manually.

Do you have any experience that older reviews are made private? Ie Google actually retrospectively go check reviews that were posted long ago? Or do you feel the check by Google is done on reviews that have just been submitted or edited.

Asking because if older reviews are periodically checked and made private, then we may need to keep going back occasionally to check the entire list of reviews over again.

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My observation suggests @StephenAbraham @MortenCopenhagen that older content does get rechecked as the model is improved and this can mean older content gets made private and sometimes made public again.

Paul

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Hello @MortenCopenhagen

Your efforts about hidden reviews are quite commendable,thank you for sharing this post.

This method and other ones you’ve shared so far on connect are not the most straightforward or easiest processes to undertake. It’s a full time job though to go through, and then after you find your hidden reviews to keep writing and re-writing reviews to see what works. You also need a computer or 2 phones etc It’s fine if you are retired or in the old folks home or even on holidays and need something interesting to do. If you are actively at work and busy,I’ll advise otherwise.

Just my candid thoughts on this.

Kind regards and Happy guiding 2022

Cheers

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Hi @StephenAbraham

I agree with @PaulPavlinovich and would like to add that besides the spam filter checking old reviews now and then, also flagging by business owners and other Maps users can cause a re-check.

Cheers

Morten

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Hey @SholaIB

Yes, I am retired :smiley:

If Google wanted they could notify us when a review goes private. And/or they could provide a simple service to point out which reviews are made private. This could be as simple as marks in our contribution lists and a count of how many hidden reviews we have. This would be a respectful and courteous service to Local Guides taking their contributions seriously.

This is just to explain that I agree that it is overly complicated and time-consuming to find your hidden contributions.

You can pull up the two lists side by side on a single device = a desktop by using 2 tabs or 2 browsers. But I was too lazy to describe this solution. I think my post would have become too long and too complicated.

Cheers

Morten

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I would suggest they don’t do this deliberately @MortenCopenhagen to make it harder for spammers and disingenuous people to know when no-one can see their contributions.

Paul

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Well good for you @MortenCopenhagen a worthwhile way to spend your retirement instead of getting bored and idle. Well-done and thank you for all your contributions.

You have a point @PaulPavlinovich re-spammers but at least if we can get a notification even periodically as to which reviews are private would help. I have suggested that on the exchange board but it didn’t do through. I got a notification today about some of my reviews that have gained 5,000 views,so that could easily be slotted in notifications like that.

Cheers

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hi

thanks for this info

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You already get told in an indirect way @SholaIB the private reviews will not be getting any views :slightly_smiling_face:

Paul

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Actually, I think it would be better if there was a notification showing why it was hidden for comments that are seen or hidden as spam. So the person who made a mistake in his comment knows where he made a mistake. Sometimes very nice comments can be hidden because the owner of the business spam. Thanks for this nice sharing @MortenCopenhagen :smiling_face: :+1:t2:

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so strange! only 120 review showing for me and I’ve got over 150 published. none break any rules from my understanding. I just don’t know what to do at this point

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Hello @MortenCopenhagen

I have been having problems with my reviews of recent,therefore I have been checking and re-checking on them without success(That’s by the way)

Now I discovered some other way of checking very quickly your amount of hidden reviews. Its just a click away. My question is are you also aware of that? Being a professional at such matters?

Mind you , your method is excellent and has been working for us. I have been using it as well. Thank you.

Cheers

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@PaulPavlinovich these “private” and then “not private” changes also come when business owners first claim their Business profile and flag reviews. That process has its own timeline as well.

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Hello @MortenCopenhagen

On this issue of hidden reviews ,it seems you can’t be careful enough ! I have just realised that I have 16 private reviews now! Please what’s your advise on that,fill the form?

Please have a look at my profile anyway and thank you in advance.

Cheers

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@SholaIB

Please see this post if you want to do the work needed to identify which of your reviews are hidden.

Then share the text of these reviews in a reply below. Then maybe we can spot what violation you are not aware of. But keep in mind that Google started hiding reviews as a general sanction not directly related to the reviews in question. So there is no guarantee we can figure out why a few of your reviews are hidden.

Cheers

Morten

PS Please add the links to the places on Google maps also.

It is a lot of work finding all 16, but 5-6 are likely to give is an idea.

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@MortenCopenhagen

Thank you for prompt and rapid response as always. That method is great, but a huge task. Moreover I am on travels here and haven’t access to a desktop. I can’t find my way around it on an android.

To make it a little bit simpler,can I paste just 2 or 3 of the reviews here and the links? Thank you.

Cheers

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Hello @MortenCopenhagen

very beautiful and well decorated place for events and outing. I love the natural environment blended with some artificial mix of things. The entrance the compound,the lounge all quite correct. It’s so big and wide nice enough just to walk around and relax and chill. Weekends are even better. The place is under renovation although it’s also operating at the same time. I’ll say whenever the renovation finishes it will even be better.
Nevertheless,there is a few issues with locating the place on the maps. The category of it, the name etc quite confusing. The staff is very thin on the ground so that you can hardly have them at your beck and call. More hands needed on the deck. The restrooms are way too far away,at the end of the compound. The parking is great and security nice. It’s a good place to have fun you’ll love it.

Check out this review of Uzzitz Centre on Google Maps
https://goo.gl/maps/Rta28kUz7PNQxLBc8

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@SholaIB

I was expecting more examples.

One stylistic comment: Is something missing at the start of your text? Or did you forget to capitalize the first letter?

You included administrative comments related to the pin on Google Maps. I would not do that for two reasons: they can easily be corrected and then your words will become obsolete. Further such issues should be fixed rather than mentioned in a review.

From looking at the map there might be a need to merge some pins. My my lack of local knowledge provents me from suggesting improvements. You should.

Cheers

Morten

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@MortenCopenhagen

Thank you for commenting. I am well aware of the pins to be merged but it’s a complicated one therfore we choose to leave it. We had a meet-up here and this issue was discussed at length. We also spoke with one of the staff and realised there was a change in management etc.

N.B I forgot to capitalise the start of the text sorry,my bad. Wonder could that be a reason???

1 Like