Businesses Buying Positive Yelp Reviews Get Branded
Yelp slapped a scarlet letter on eight businesses recently--only, in this case, the A stood for Alert. Search Engine Land reports that Yelp's ongoing quest for real, honest reviews has led them to add prominent consumer alerts on offending pages, complete with links to the incriminating correspondence. In response to ongoing criticism of their filtering practices, Yelp has discussed their methods while being necessarily cagey about what will set off...read more >>
Online Reviews: No Big Deal?
A recent article in the Financial Times delves into the contradictory world of online reviews. In some cases, user reviews have a big impact on purchasing behavior. In other cases, not so much. This is similar to what we found in our series on the effects of user-generated content on e-commerce. The Financial Time's Michael Skapinker took a look at the research on reviews, and found it to be "strangely inconclusive." Skapinker notes that little is...read more >>
Brands Commissioning Fake Reviews to Look Good on Social Media
A new study by Gartner suggests that brands are increasingly turning to fake feedback to make themselves look good on social media platforms such as Facebook. Purchased reviews and "Likes" will make up 15 percent of total reviews by 2014, according to the report. The report predicts that federal regulators will need to become involved and that major brands will be found guilty of faking reviews. But millions of fake Likes on Facebook won't fool savvy...read more >>
Paid Video Reviews Trustworthy?
A Forbes.com article recently trumpeted the rise of the video product review. With e-commerce plagued by fraudulent reviews, author Sean Rosensteel believes video represents user-generated content's knight in shining armor. "These [video] reviews have more authenticity than traditional written reviews as they're no longer posted by faceless people. By being able to see the body language and mannerisms of the person in the video, we can judge their...read more >>
Bing Liu: The Science of Detecting Fake Reviews
The dark art of rigging reviews is widespread across the web and has even ensnared several content26 clients over the years. The temptation to post fake reviews is high for companies that sell products online. The going rate for a fake five-star review seems to be about $5. Think about it--a mere $500 could pay for 100 5-star reviews on Amazon or Yelp. But the risks of engaging in this unethical practice are high as well. A recent New York Times...read more >>