Over the past few days I have been seeing an enormous number of complaints in the various forums that the reviews within ones Google Places listing have been removed. Yes, Google Maps reviews have gone missing.

At first, I thought it was a bug, like the dozens of other times we reported these issues.

But this time it has to do with a Google Maps reviews spam update.

Google Maps representative, Vanessa, said in a Google Places Help thread and Google Maps Help thread that the reason for all the reviews going away was because Google pushed out a Maps reviews spam filter. Vanessa explained:

Like any spam prevention mechanism, it is not perfect and Google will improve it over time. I have seen reports of reviews coming back into the system since the initial reports of some of the reviews have missing.

Forum discussion at Google Places Help and Google Maps Help.

Update: Joel from Google informed me after careful review it is not a spam filter. He said, “I have confirmed that this isn’t a spam issue. It’s a problem on our end we’re actively working to fix.”