Google revises the way it decides which product reviews appear in Search

Google announced Wednesday that it's making some improvements to the way it decides which product reviews to display in search results. The idea behind these and other recent product review updates is to ensure that the reviews you see are of high quality and actually include useful information about a product you might be considering purchasing.

The improvements build on previous updates "to make sure that product reviews in Search meet certain criteria," Google's Perry Liu said in a blog post. Here are some examples of the criteria Liu says the company is looking for:

- Include helpful in-depth details, like the benefits or drawbacks of a certain item, specifics on how a product performs or how the product differs from previous versions

- Come from people who have actually used the products, and show what the product is physically like or how it's used

- Include unique information beyond what the manufacturer provides — like visuals, audio or links to other content detailing the reviewer's experience

- Cover comparable products, or explain what sets a product apart from its competitors

The updates announced Wednesday will roll out "in the coming weeks" and "may affect English product review rankings on many sites," Google said in a separate post. The company also plans to "open product review support for more languages" in the future.

The updates come amid some criticism that Google's search results aren't as useful as they used to be. We need to wait and see if these changes to product reviews make it easier to find quality reviews, but it sounds like they might be a small step in the right direction.