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Google's Place Sites: A Compliance Gesture or A True Shift in Search?

Google is rolling out a new feature called "Place Sites" in North America, following its initial launch in Europe as part of compliance with the Digital Markets Act (DMA). The feature presents a carousel of aggregator search results, such as Yelp and TripAdvisor, prominently placed in top positions for local queries like restaurants. The idea is to redirect traffic to competitors to address accusations of Google self-preferencing. However, our testing shows that user engagement has been very, very low, with people rarely interacting with the carousel despite its visibility.

This could be a preemptive move by Google to fend off similar regulatory pressures in North America, where laws against self-preferencing are still in discussion. Or it might be part of a larger strategy to boost Google’s new AI-organized search results that keep users within Google’s ecosystem. By offering the AI-refined, visually driven search results, Google could be aiming to increase search volume and maintain its dominance in the market. That all being said, the Places Sites feature is seen more as a compliance gesture than a game-changer for user experience.

Allure Aesthetics' Review Fraud Highlights Google's Inaction & Continuing Consumer Harm

Allure Aesthetics, a plastic surgery clinic in Seattle, has been caught in a major review fraud scandal. After being convicted in 2024 for illegal review practices—such as forcing patients to sign NDAs to prevent negative reviews and having employees post fake ones—Allure was fined $5 million. Despite this, Google has taken little action to remove the fraudulent reviews from its platform. As of now, the clinic still ranks highly in search results with an impressive 4.8 rating based on over 900 reviews, many of which were accumulated during the period of fraudulent activity.

Despite plenty of media coverage and efforts to report the fraud, Google has not removed the questionable reviews or penalized the clinic in its local search results. The scandal underscores a larger issue: Google’s inconsistent approach to handling cases of review fraud, even when businesses have been legally penalized.

FTC Targets AI Tool Rytr for Enabling Fake Review Generation

The FTC has taken action against Rytr, an AI-powered writing tool, accusing it of facilitating the creation of thousands of fake reviews. With a simple interface that allows users to generate human-sounding testimonials at scale, the tool has enabled some subscribers to produce over 10,000 reviews each. The FTC's complaint argues that the tool’s only practical use is to produce deceptive reviews, leading to an enforcement action that requires the company to shut down its review-generating functionality and undergo 20 years of monitoring.

The case has sparked debate, with some FTC members arguing that the action is based on hypothetical harm, while others emphasize the risk of AI tools being misused for fraud. The FTC's move raises questions about the broader role of AI in generating content and its potential to facilitate large-scale review abuse, with concerns growing over how much consumers can trust online reviews in the face of increasing fraud.

AI Notes: These summaries were written by ChatGPT from transcripts of the recording. They were checked for accuracy and rewritten for tone. But if you disagree with the results, take it up with Open AI.

The Near Memo is a weekly conversation about Search, Social, and Commerce: What happened, why it matters, and the implications for local businesses and national brands.
Ep 177

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