Fake reviews are an unfortunate thing to have when it comes to any product, whether it be digital content or physical goods, but that doesn’t stop some individuals from doing what they can to ensure that they’re offerings have a wealth of customer and user feedback, even if it isn’t real, as more reviews could potentially mean more eyes on their product and if those reviews happen to be glowing, then that could bode well for any real customers who might be considering giving a particular product a go. Google is doing its part to improve the standing on fake reviews on Google Play for apps and other digital content, and it’s recently laid out its future plans for “keeping it real” with ratings and reviews in its digital marketplace for the Android operating system.
Google’s changes for improving the standing of “spammy behavior” on the Play Store initially hit the wire back at the end of October when they made improvements to combating fake app install numbers, but today they’re making small improvements that are sure to be felt in a not so small way, as they’re improving the accuracy with which they can identify and then remove fake reviews and ratings for content. Greater accuracy in pinpointing these reviews and ratings means that there will be less of them hanging around, and that means Google’s goal of a more trustworthy Play Store experience for all users is closer than ever.
To be sure, this won’t completely eradicate fake reviews, but it’s certainly a step in the right direction and a nice addition to Google’s other improvements that have been made recently. In the end, this moves towards resulting in users getting an overview of what other real users think of the apps they’ve installed, and thus provides a better picture of what they might experience should they install the same app. By the same token, a more honest picture of the ratings of apps might actually dissuade users from opening up a particular app page to check out the reviews and the app’s description if the rating is lower, which, shouldn’t be a bad thing if the rating was higher before but also fraudulent to begin with. While these are definitely some good improvements, Google surely won’t be stopping here, and will do more to improve this area of Google Play when and where they can.