G2

Overview

G2 is the largest software review marketplace, where businesses research and compare software products based on peer reviews. Software vendors embed G2 widgets on their websites to display review scores, star ratings, comparison grids, and award badges sourced from their G2 marketplace listings. These social proof elements are commonly placed on homepages, pricing pages, and landing pages to build credibility with potential buyers.

G2 widgets are ubiquitous in B2B SaaS marketing. The platform hosts millions of reviews across thousands of software categories, making G2 badges a recognized trust signal in enterprise software purchasing.

What This Script Does

When G2 review widgets are embedded on your website, the following occurs:

• Widget rendering: G2's JavaScript fetches current review data (star ratings, review counts, satisfaction scores) from G2's API and renders badges or comparison widgets on the page.
• Impression tracking: Each time a widget loads, G2 records the impression to measure badge performance and provide analytics to the vendor about widget engagement.
• Click tracking: When visitors click on a G2 widget (e.g., to read full reviews), the click is tracked for attribution — G2 measures how much traffic their widgets drive back to the marketplace.
• Referral attribution: G2 may set cookies or use URL parameters to attribute visitors who click through to G2's marketplace, tracking the conversion funnel from widget impression to marketplace engagement.
• Network requests: Widget scripts make requests to G2's domains (e.g., static.g2.com, tracking.g2crowd.com), transmitting the visitor's IP address and browser metadata.

The widgets serve a primarily marketing function — displaying social proof to influence purchasing decisions and driving traffic back to G2's marketplace.

Consent & Compliance

G2 widgets combine content display with marketing analytics. The impression and click tracking goes beyond simply rendering review data — it feeds G2's own analytics platform and powers referral attribution. Under the ePrivacy Directive, tracking widget interactions and setting cookies for attribution purposes requires consent, as these activities are not strictly necessary for a service the visitor has requested.

The visitor did not request to see G2 review badges; they were placed by the site operator for marketing purposes. This distinguishes them from user-initiated actions like search or video playback.

From a GDPR perspective, visitor IP addresses and browsing behavior are transmitted to G2 (a third-party) for purposes including analytics and attribution. This data processing should be disclosed in the site's privacy policy, and the legal basis (typically consent for marketing-related tracking) should be established.

Should You Block This Without Consent?

Yes. G2 widgets serve a marketing purpose (social proof and referral attribution) and include impression and click tracking that transmits visitor data to G2's servers. This should be gated behind consent.