Google Introduces 'Reviews From the Web', Lets Any Site Contribute Reviews to Search

It used to be that Google Search would show reviews of places, movies, TV shows and so on from a few, reputed websites. Google is now bringing 'Reviews from the Web,' which will display reviews from any third-party site. Google will now collect reviews from up to three sites for any place, movie or TV show, ordered in terms of relevance.

This essentially means that user-generated reviews can be displayed on the search engine and has the opportunity to be read as widely as the more popular sites. Prior to this, Google introduced best of lists and critic reviews for the search engine.

The company was earlier criticised for allowing only critic reviews on its engine, while sites like Yelp or TripAdvisor were ineligible since their content and reviews were user-generated. Google's new update will now include sites with user-driven reviews as long as the sites implement Google's review snippet markup., the search giant said in a blog post on Wednesday.

Google will also collect its own reviews which will be among the three review sources. The other two being critics and third-party review sites. Qualified critics will be able to display their reviews in the search engine's Rich cards which are large boxes with an embedded snippet of the review.

The search giant will roll out the new feature globally in the 24 hours. The company also announced a new 'Shop the Look' feature currently being tested that allows users to search and shop for specific outfits and home décor options all without leaving the search engine. With these new additions, Google wants to make sure that its search engine becomes a one stop destination for consumers.