Google reviews seem to be disappearing from Google Business Profile local listings. In the past few days or so there has been an influx of complaints in the Google Business Profile forums. I have not seen Google respond to the complaints, but either there is a bug or a change to the review policy that is causing these reviews to go missing.
Google will add to existing penalties or restrictions on your Google Business Profiles if you continue to violate the same policy over and over again. The initial restriction might be 30 days but then if you are caught doing the same thing, Google can make that restriction twice as long.
Google is testing updating the design for the local pack and places listings within Google Search. The map was moved to the top, instead of on the right and the action buttons are also moved and changed.
Google has added the messages button back to the Google Business Profile dashboard within Google Search. Google use to have a feature like this but I believe removed it but now it is possibly coming back.
Google is adding a new feature to the Google Business Profiles actions named Collected Info. This is to confirm your business details and keep your Business Profile updated, Google wrote.
Google is testing using a hot pink font for the live time for when a place is busy or not. This is part of the old popular times feature, but Google is testing or launching a hot pink font to make it really noticeable.
Google can show an “Activities” button in the Google Business Profiles dashboard within Google Search. I assume this button is reserved for venues that let you book activities including booking tickets or other activities.
It looks like Google has removed the pagination feature within the Google Local Finder interface. When you scroll through the local business profiles, it keeps adding more and more but the pagination bar is no longer there. I suspect the pagination feature was removed and replaced with infinite scroll?
There are reports of a bug with Google Business Profiles where using the feature to invite others with owner and/or manager access is not working.
Google will soon allow you to connect Google Business Profiles with Gemini. This will allow you to ask questions about your reviews, your local listing and performance within Google Maps and Google Search.