Google Places Adopts Hotpot
Google has rolled their Hotpot service directly into the Places pages...and it's about time. After releasing the product last November, Google bragged that it had hit a million monthly users and that reviews for restaurants and other services were flooding into Google at an incredible rate.
However, this was in part due to a lot of hard work on behalf of Google who expanded the product into more than 47 languages and integrated it into Google, Google Maps, and Twitter. They also launched a large advertising campaign around the US and other countries to promote Hotpot, and its associated apps.
Once Google got this community rocketing off the ground, they decided it was doing so well that they got rid of it by finally integrating it with the Places pages...which is truly where it belonged the entire time. Now you can rate, be rated, recommend, and get recommendations - all while not having to worry about a separate profile, and an entire separate entity to deal with.
Even though Google won't specify how 'good' reviews will operate in their algorithm, it's always a good policy to encourage good reviews to allow your company to stay on top online. Make sure to review our detailed resources on generating local reviews online below:
