Google has told Joy Hawkins that giving charitable donations in exchange for a positive review on your Google Business Profile listing is against its guidelines.

It would go specifically against the fake engagement policy that reads, “Paying, incentivizing or encouraging the posting of content that does not represent a genuine experience.” A charitable donation would be considered “incentivizing” and thus against the rules.

Joy wrote, “In this case, the person leaving the review isn’t technically receiving the incentive since the money is going to a charity, but Google confirmed it is still against the guidelines. Although the user leaving the review technically isn’t getting the money, it can still lead to bias towards a positive review given the incentive of a donation. Ultimately, Google doesn’t want the customer experience to be swayed either way.”

How does Google know this? That is a totally different story.

Forum discussion at Twitter.

Here is a photo of a newish mural put up in the Google New York City office. It was named “A Home Away From Home.” The artist, Carla Torres posted it on Instagram and wrote “I had these photos of the final result and some process of “A Home Away From Home” mural for Google NYC. It was so much fun to work on this piece I enjoyed every minute of it. If you want to know more about the creative process behind it please see the video next to this post.”

Here is the embed:

This post is part of our daily Search Photo of the Day column, where we find fun and interesting photos related to the search industry and share them with our readers.

Google released an update to Google Bard last night that allows you to share your precise location with Bard for it to give you more accurate and relevant local results.

Google wrote, “Bard can start providing more relevant responses if you choose to let it use your device’s precise location. You can manage your preferences in location settings Opens in a new window.” Google said this “helps Bard provide more relevant responses about restaurants near you and many other things about your area.”

When you go to Bard, you might see this overlay asking you to share your precise location:

It says, “Bard uses location from your Google Account’s Home and Work addresses and your IP address. Learn more about location settings. To get more relevant responses, you can also choose to let Bard use your device’s precise location. Use your precise location for Bard? You can change your settings anytime.”

I tried it last night and the local results were not too precise but I am sure they will improve.

Forum discussion at Twitter.