The Google Maps Blog announced they have updated the maps review policy on how to write reviews and what reviews Google has the right to remove. In addition, TechCrunch reports that Google has dropped Yelp’s syndicated reviews from Google Maps.

The new Google Maps review guidelines share tips on how to write constructive reviews. Some of those tips include make the reviews informative and insightful, use your real stories and not stuff that didn’t happen to you, be nice even with negative reviews by making them constructive and not disrespectful, and finally write them well using proper grammer and avoid excessive capitalization or punctuation. In addition, Google said they reserve the right to remove reviews when the reviews are illegal, inappropriate, spam, off-topic, or a conflict of interest.

TechCrunch reports that all of a sudden all the Yelp syndicated reviews have gone missing from Google Maps. TechCrunch spot checked several old map listings that contained yelp reviews just a month ago and now they are gone. This leads them to suspect that Google is removing all of Yelps content, which make spark some more Google/Yelp controversy.

Related Topics: Google: Maps & Local | Search Engines: Maps & Local Search Engines | Search Engines: Mobile Search Engines

About The Author: Barry Schwartz is Search Engine Land's News Editor and owns RustyBrick, a NY based web consulting firm. He also runs Search Engine Roundtable, a popular search blog on very advanced SEM topics. Barry's personal blog is named Cartoon Barry and he can be followed on Twitter here. For more background information on Barry, see his full bio over here. See more articles by Barry Schwartz