It appears that Facebook is taking another step in offering an alternative to Yelp and similar services. The company has reportedly partnered with a number of content providers to show reviews from food critics on restaurants’ Facebook Pages.
The feature is being tested according to multiple reports.
Facebook tells me that yes, they’ll include negative critical reviews on restaurant pages: http://t.co/MV1042kKMi
— Casey Newton (@CaseyNewton) May 26, 2015
According to the report above, Facebook has partnered with Bon Appetit, Conde Nast Traveler, Eater, New York Magazine, and the San Francisco Chronicle. so far. It shares a comment from Facebook:
“Since reviews are such an important part of helping people make informed decisions about what to do locally, we’re excited to be incorporating a new way for people to use Facebook to find the best real-world experiences,” a Facebook spokeswoman told us in an email. “Thousands” of restaurants are included in the pilot, she said.
While it doesn’t discuss extending this beyond restaurants, one can imagine that similar content could one day appear for different types of businesses. It would also be interesting if Facebook did with with movies. I bet the studios would love to see quotes like this one appear on their movies’ pages:
Rarely has a remake felt more contractually obligated than the 2015 version of Poltergeist. – Brian Tallerico·Roger Ebert
While Facebook Pages for restaurants already display reviews from people who have visited, the new feature adds another layer of authority to the content that is displayed, provided you’re one that puts a lot of stock into what critics think. The fact that negative reviews are as likely to show as positive ones could present restaurants (and potentially other businesses) with a new source of frustration on Facebook.