Recently we discussed some of the problems that review sites like Yelp were having when it came to keeping their reviews fair. A system where strangers review products and services is often wide open for exploitation with business people writing their own praising reviews and giving terrible reviews to their competition.
The biggest problems with internet product reviews are that you just don’t know who is writing them. We are all anonymous on the web and have our own motivations for doing things. It would be kind of naive to think that those trying to sell products and services wouldn’t go out of their way to stick some flattering testimonials out there. This means that it is hard to know that the product review you are reading is actually fair or not.
Despite these failings with online reviews, it does seem that many of us are prepared to make purchases on the basis of the things we read online. In fact a recent survey has shown that 57% of consumers trust the reviews they read online, and probably a lot more than this act upon them. Google has never been one to miss out on any opportunity and they may be moving further into the world of product reviews as they are teaming up with Bazzaarvoice.
Personally I think that product reviews are useful enough so long as you take them with a large pinch of salt. It is good to get as many opinions as possible from a few sources that you trust; keeping in mind that the whole online review business is open to abuse. The success of these product review sites seems to indicate that we can expect a lot more of this in the future. Hopefully more of these review sites will toughen up their submission policies to ensure increased fairness.
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