Automatic display of TripAdvisor hotel reviews on Google search results has recently been stopped. Initially the absence of TripAdvisor reviews from Google was reported as a technical issue, but recent reports have confirmed it was a deliberate move on part of TripAdvisor. The reason for this has been mentioned as the changes in the layout of Google Places pages. TripAdvisor feels that these changes are not helpful for users.
Google Maps and Google Places come up with relevant answers to user queries with the help of public reviews. Only a small per
centage of these reviews are directly from Google, and most of them are collected from other popular sites like PriceLine, Hotels.com or Yelp. A large percentage of hotel reviews were imported from TripAdvisor.
Although the reason for restricting the amount of TripAdvisor content accessible to Google has been cited as changes in page layout, it may not be the only thing that prompted TripAdvisor to make this move. For review sites like TripAdvisor, Google Places and Google Maps are a great opportunity for internet marketing, but Google is also a formidable competitor for them.
In the past, Google had a similar issue with Yelp, which resulted in Yelp restricting its content in Google results. But the issue was resolved and Google once again has full access to the content on Yelp. The issue with TripAdvisor could follow a similar pattern.