Google is planning to fix incorrect, 1-star app ratings in search results next week
Google is planning to fix an issue that displayed incorrect, one-star ratings for a number of iPhone, iPad, and Mac apps in its search results. The news was first reported by MacRumors.
You can read more about the issue in this Google Search Help forum thread. Earlier today, a Google Community Manager acknowledged the issue and discussed a fix timeline:
Hi everyone, thanks for your continued reports here. As Spencer mentioned, he’s been following up thoroughly with us regarding this and I’m happy to share that we’ve been working hard on providing a solution, and a new fix has been scheduled for the next release, which should be rolling out early next week. Appreciate your patience here.
If any developers find incorrect ratings after the middle of next week, the manager asked to report back in the thread and Google will investigate.
An example of an incorrect app rating appearing on Google search results.
The issue apparently was confined to apps that had less than five total reviews for the current version, causing Google to not have enough information to display an average rating. It started appearing sometime in late October.
That could easily happen for apps that are frequently updated or titles that don’t receive a substantial amount of downloads.
With Google search being so ubiquitous, I’m glad to see this substantial problem is being addressed.
For other news today, see: Apple is offering a $60 iTunes voucher with Beats headphones, Shadows become nightmarish creatures in Monsters by Tinybop, and Take your iPhone photography to new levels with MaxCurve.