(via the Google Lat-Long Blog)
Google Maps has offered a collection of reviews assembled from some of the finest sources on the web for some time, but now we’re augmenting those with reviews from an even better source: you — and, we hope, millions of other opinionated Google users. Search for your favorite places and click on the “More Info” link. From there, click on “Write a Review” to start giving your two cents.
What it means: user reviews in a local search site environment are becoming more and more a must-have feature. You should be looking at it if you operate in that space. By the way, this new Google Maps feature means that they are slowly moving from a content aggregation strategy to a content creation strategy in their local search section.
Seb Provencher's Blog 
If only Google had a half-decent social network backbone to tie all this together…)
If only Google had a half-decent social network backbone to tie all this together…)
Google can potentially get some traction with this. However, what I like about their strategy is a) first you aggregate reviews from multiple sources and then b) introduce your own service ontop of that. What will be interesting to see over time is how many people actually use Google to post reviews.
Google can potentially get some traction with this. However, what I like about their strategy is a) first you aggregate reviews from multiple sources and then b) introduce your own service ontop of that. What will be interesting to see over time is how many people actually use Google to post reviews.