Desk9 Reviews for Google

Add a key. Pick your business. Always show your latest Google reviews.

Desk9 Reviews uses the official Google Places API to automatically keep the
latest real Google reviews (stars, author, comment) up to date on your WordPress
site. You never copy or create reviews by hand — and there is no OAuth flow and
no Google verification to wait for. You simply add a Google Places API key and
search for your business.

The plugin is deliberately focused: one business, one global design, sixteen
layouts. It is built for local businesses — practices, trades, restaurants,
hotels, agencies, retailers and freelancers.

Features

• Automatic synchronization of your latest Google reviews (hourly refresh + a daily full reconciliation).
• Sixteen layouts, from a one-line text rating to a full carousel — all from one render engine.
• Five design presets (Inherit theme, Clean, Soft, Outline, Dark) plus a Custom preset that unlocks every colour.
• Light, dark or “follow the visitor’s system setting” — every layout works on any theme background.
• A dynamic Gutenberg block and a [rdgfg_rating_display] shortcode that share one render engine.
• A live preview with a layout gallery, device sizes and instant colour/size feedback.
• Reviews are sorted by their original creation time, so the newest reviews really are shown first.
• Server-side only: the public frontend never calls Google, so pages stay fast.
• Accessible (WCAG 2.1 AA target), privacy-first, no external fonts, no telemetry.
• Fully translation-ready and WPML / Polylang compatible.

Rating layouts (average, stars and review count)

1. Inline Text Rating — a single line such as “4.9 ★★★★★ 80 reviews” that flows
   inside a sentence, a heading or next to a button, in five density steps from
   XL down to a micro “★ 4.9” for button rows.
2. Rating Badge — compact trust block, vertical or horizontal.
3. Rating Bar — horizontal trust bar with an optional “Write a review” button.
4. Notification Bar — an ultra-slim single-line strip for headers.
5. Trust Strip — overlapping reviewer initials next to the rating.
6. Rating Divider — the rating as a section separator between two rules.
7. Freshly Reviewed — a chip showing how recently the last review came in.
8. Image Halo — the rating as a pill over one of your own images.

Review layouts (individual comments)

1. Review Grid — responsive review cards, one to three columns.
2. Review Carousel — summary plus a slider of review cards.
3. Review Showcase — split summary and slider for homepages.
4. Quote Spotlight — the single most convincing review as a large quotation.
5. Card Deck — stacked cards you click through.
6. Sidebar Widget — a narrow vertical list for sidebars and footers.
7. Review Ticker — short quotes running as a band, made for footers.
8. Sticky Trust Pill — a corner badge that opens a panel with your reviews.

Shortcode

[rdgfg_rating_display layout="inline" size="s"]
[rdgfg_rating_display layout="grid" reviews="3" columns="3"]
[rdgfg_rating_display layout="quote" pick="newest"]

Attributes: layout (inline, badge, bar, notice, strip, divider, chip, halo,
grid, carousel, showcase, quote, deck, widget, ticker, pill), reviews (1–5 —
grid, carousel, showcase, deck, widget, ticker), size (xs, s, m, l, xl —
inline), variant (vertical, horizontal — badge), columns (1–3 — grid),
float (none, top, bottom for the bars; none plus top/bottom-left/center/right
for Badge, Freshly reviewed and Sticky pill), dismissible,
pick (best, newest, longest or 1–5 — quote spotlight), show_summary,
show_cta, show_maps_link, show_avatars, show_date, cta_card,
text_lines, align (left, center, right), image (media ID — image halo),
class.
Anything you leave out follows the global Display & Styling settings.

External services

This plugin connects to Google’s official Places API (New) to read the public
rating and reviews of the business you connect. It is required for the plugin to
work.

Requests used:

• Places API Text Search — to find your business by name during setup.
• Places API Place Details — to read the rating, review count and latest reviews.

When data is transmitted: only during setup (business search) and during
scheduled or manual synchronization on the server. The public frontend never
contacts Google.

What is sent: your API key and place/search requests to Google. No data is
sent to Melonlabs or any other third party.

What is stored: the latest reviews Google returns (author display name,
rating, comment, dates) plus a business snapshot, cached for a limited time. Your
API key is stored in the WordPress options table and used only for server-side
requests. You can disconnect at any time and optionally delete all data on
uninstall.

Google applies its own terms and privacy policy to this data:

• Google Terms of Service: https://policies.google.com/terms
• Google Privacy Policy: https://policies.google.com/privacy
• Places API: https://developers.google.com/maps/documentation/places/web-service/overview

Privacy

The plugin sets no cookies, does not track visitors, includes no analytics or
telemetry, and loads no external fonts. See the Third-Party Services section and
the suggested privacy-policy text the plugin adds under Settings → Privacy.

Google Disclaimer

Desk9 Reviews for Google is an independent plugin and is not affiliated
with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Google LLC. Google and Google Business Profile
are trademarks of Google LLC.

Known Limitations

• Requires a Google Places API key on a Cloud project with billing enabled.
• The Places API returns up to five reviews per business, so at most five recent
  reviews are shown. Getting all reviews would require the OAuth-based Business
  Profile API, which this plugin intentionally does not use.
• One business per site. Reviews are sorted by their original publish time so the
  newest reviews are shown first.