A really fantastic read and touched on a lot of things close to my heart, especially recently. Shame about dinner. But the mention of the BBC piece, the *cough* questionable “reviews” on Google Maps and the “influencer” feedback.
Thanks Liam, I’m sure Caitlin will appreciate your kind words! Yes, Google is becoming increasingly unreliable. I’m in Cambodia at the moment, and most restaurants here are 4.7 or 4.8 on Google and serving utterly diabolical food. Apparently in Vietnam you can’t trust them at all because they are all bought. Good quality local blogs are the only way! 😉
Zomato was the original influencer catnip platform here in the UAE. There was a psuedo-title that people carried around as a Zomato Review, like a badge of honour. Zomato was largely replaced with Tripadvisor and now it is Google Maps. Broadly, I still think Google Maps is better than its predecessors and leagues better than Instagram or TikTok. The number of PRs who approached me over the years offering a 'media review' explicitly in exchange for four to five stars is ASTONISHING. Naturally I declined, but the brazen nature of it is breathtaking. There are certain people where if I see they provided a four to five star review, then I know the place is B.S. because those guy would wax lyrical over the last egg mayo in a petrol station. Fight the food fight on local writing!
Ah interesting. Yeah I think Google was better but now is going to same way as TripAdvisor et al. Yes - I occasionally get asked too. But if The Sauce ever accepts an invite in exchange for a review, it’ll be over my dead body!
A really fantastic read and touched on a lot of things close to my heart, especially recently. Shame about dinner. But the mention of the BBC piece, the *cough* questionable “reviews” on Google Maps and the “influencer” feedback.
Thanks Liam, I’m sure Caitlin will appreciate your kind words! Yes, Google is becoming increasingly unreliable. I’m in Cambodia at the moment, and most restaurants here are 4.7 or 4.8 on Google and serving utterly diabolical food. Apparently in Vietnam you can’t trust them at all because they are all bought. Good quality local blogs are the only way! 😉
Zomato was the original influencer catnip platform here in the UAE. There was a psuedo-title that people carried around as a Zomato Review, like a badge of honour. Zomato was largely replaced with Tripadvisor and now it is Google Maps. Broadly, I still think Google Maps is better than its predecessors and leagues better than Instagram or TikTok. The number of PRs who approached me over the years offering a 'media review' explicitly in exchange for four to five stars is ASTONISHING. Naturally I declined, but the brazen nature of it is breathtaking. There are certain people where if I see they provided a four to five star review, then I know the place is B.S. because those guy would wax lyrical over the last egg mayo in a petrol station. Fight the food fight on local writing!
Ah interesting. Yeah I think Google was better but now is going to same way as TripAdvisor et al. Yes - I occasionally get asked too. But if The Sauce ever accepts an invite in exchange for a review, it’ll be over my dead body!