Correct me if I’m wrong but I think this seems to be the pattern for Google as far as making changes to their products:

Debut epic product
Make continual changes to said epic product
Make new product to make other product work better, then incorporate it into said epic product like they should have done in the first place
Continue to make changes to products
Unveil the next epic product
Rinse and repeat

Integrating Hotpot into Places is a good example of Google’s growing pains/improvements – click here. Along the same lines, is a post discussing whether or not Google had spread themselves too thin instead of focusing on search – click here for the full article.

This time though, with Google+ it seems that everything is getting a makeover to create a streamlined, user-friendly and more intuitive product suite.

Most recently, they’ve changed their Place pages – most notably by visually encouraging users to leave reviews using the Google platform and deemphasizing “reviews from around the web”. They’ve pushed down reviews from sites like Yelp and TripAdvisor to appear after Google user reviews on the page. There was controversy surrounding them incorporating reviews from other well-known sites. Critics said they were “stealing” reviews and supporters thought they were just using public information to provide a more well-rounded user experience. Check it out, here.

We commend Google for their improvements and working toward integrating all their different toys for the benefit of users and businesses.