A quick investigation into the new "About This Place" feature

reported by Valentina Vasileva via @whitespark on LinkedIn (Link to post)

So I did some investigation, and here's what I'm finding:

• It's mostly in the hospitality and tourism/nightlife vertical:
  • Bars, nightclubs, museums, movie theaters, restaurants, zoos, parks, video arcades: IN
  • Doctors, contractors, malls, retailers, hospitals, accountants, lawyers: OUT
  • Hotels are OUT, even if you click on the profile without being in the special hotel display:
    
    
• There seems to be a similar threshold to the mobile-online "things to know" feature, ca. 40-50 reviews, but at the lower end, there are clearly other factors. Compare these pairs
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• The exact differentiator remains unknown to me. It's not "numbe rof reviews with photos" and it's not "review topics with enough reviews associated with them".

 

[JS Girard]

Addendum: It's showing also for gyms.

 

[JoyHawkins]

This is interesting. Definitely interested to hear if people see it on home services.

 

[JS Girard]

More findings!

• Not a differentiator: Presence of at least one video (both nelson mandela park and Chin Chow have at least one)
• Possible differentiator: external content. Kamthai does have one item that's from reddit, but that item does NOT mention the restaurant!!

This leads to the most surprising discovery:

• Items in this section do not necessarily mention the GBP the kindersley Park profile features multiple Reddit threads that just discuss Mount Royal in general. One of them under 2Bench" is complaining (legitimately, lol) about the seating at mount royal subway station!
• Sometimes, the same profile does not show the section. If you search for Kindersley park by name, you don't get the section. But if you search for parks, you do: