Google Adds 'Critic Reviews,' Best-of Articles to Searches

Google makes finding a place to eat easier with critic reviews, best-of articles

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Whether you’re itching for something to do in your home city or visiting a new place, you’ve probably run a search like “best spots to eat.” Up until now, Google would offer up a few top-rated spots from Zagat and Google Maps, but the search giant is expanding the feature to show picks from top critics and reputable publishers.

“Starting [Thursday] in the U.S., when you search on your Google app for the best spots to eat and drink, you’ll have access to reviews from top critics and best-of lists from reputable publishers,” Ronnie Falcon, product manager at Google Search, writes in a blog post.

It works like this — if you search for a term like “Chinese restaurants” in Google’s app, you’ll find yourself staring at a list of top-rated spots and a map with these locations listed. Click on one, and you’ll be greeted with the familiar Google Maps-style result that offers the restaurant’s website, menu, number, directions, hours, and more. Scroll down a little and you’ll see two new sections: “Critic reviews” and “On these lists.”

“Critic reviews” gives you a quick blurb of a review from various sites like Google-owned Zagat, or Eater, CBS Local, and UrbanDaddy. You’ll get a link to the review if you want to read it in-depth, but there are no ratings shown here.

Below that, “On these lists” shows a multitude of articles that the restaurant is mentioned in — these can range from posts like Zagat’s “8 must-try dumpling spots in NYC” to Thrillist Media Group’s “Chinese food near New York.” Clicking on these will bring you to those respective websites.

google search critic reviews restaurants — 1. A general search.
2. Restaurants with the new feature will have these icons below them.
3. What you see when you click on a restaurant. This is not new.
4. Scroll down and you’ll see the new sections.

Further down below, you’ll find photos of the restaurant and Google reviews from your average Joe — but these have been there for a while.

The feature should be available for you to try now in the Google app, and note that not all restaurants will show “Critic reviews” and “On these lists.”

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