Funny about those 3rd party reviews......One week I'll have "26" and another time it will be only "17".....Google Maps has now awarded my business "5 Stars" (*****) which is apparently based on the composite score of the compiled reviews.

Barry -
If your reviews originate in Google Maps (i.e. aren't from a 3rd party data provider) you can expect periodic wonkiness with them. Sometimes they will be missing. Sometimes there will only be the snippet, with no ability to click to the full review. And, sometimes, Google simply decides to delete your reviews while offering no explanation.

You may see your reviews come back or they may be gone for good.

Of course, on the off chance that Google actually noticed that you left your own company a review and they decided that was spammy, they could have removed it for that reason. The attention they are paying to this kind of activity seems sporadic at best, so who knows if that is why.

Google reviews are, in my opinion, the most flawed area of a very flawed system. There is something new wrong with them almost every week. Ho-hum.

I'm responding to a thread that started in April of '09, but here I am in September '09 with this problem: my business had 7 reviews and they all disappeared overnight. Any suggestions?

It is December 19th and I had 9 hard earned reviews, non of which was my own, and after a period (1,5/ 2 months) where they apeared and disapeared on and off (also for different searches) they seem to be gone for good now. I refer my clients to write reviews, but now I am not so sure any more, and I cannot ask those who left a commment again, as it is not really professional. Anybody any suggestions?