Facebook Is Testing Reviews From Restaurant Critics In Search & On Pages

In an effort to enhance local place results, professional reviews from five pilot partners will appear when people look for restaurants within the social network.

Martin Beck on May 26, 2015

Facebook is testing a feature that will display reviews by professional restaurant critics on Facebook Pages. Starting today, when people look for certain U.S. restaurants on Facebook, critics’ reviews will show up along with starred reviews from friends and other Facebook users.

Partnering with five publishers — Bon Appetit, Conde Nast Traveler, Eater, New York Magazine and the San Francisco Chronicle — Facebook will associate the professional content with a selected group of restaurants in the United States. The move seems to be an effort to enhance the results of local place search on Facebook, a battleground currently dominated by Yelp and Google.

Summaries of critics’ reviews will be displayed and if a user taps on a link, he or she will be taken to the full review on the publisher’s website. Professional reviews will also be displayed when people check into a restaurant in the program or within a Facebook Place Tip about the location.

Facebook told us that thousands of restaurants are included in the program currently and that it intends to expand the group in the coming months.

Unlike with user-generated reviews on Facebook, restaurant owners will not be able to flag reviews. Facebook says it carefully picked publishing partners based in their public reputation for accuracy. That doesn’t account for negative reviews, however; and some restaurateurs might want more control over content on their Facebook Pages.

About The Author

Martin Beck

Martin Beck is Third Door Media’s Social Media Reporter, covering the latest news for Marketing Land and Search Engine Land. He spent 24 years with the Los Angeles Times, serving as social media and reader engagement editor from 2010-2014. A graduate of UC Irvine and the University of Missouri journalism school, Beck started started his career at the Times as a sportswriter and copy editor. Follow Martin on Twitter (@MartinBeck), Facebook and/or Google+.