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Do you trust online reviews? Now that Amazon is suing more than 1,000 people who allegedly offered to write glowing product reviews for cash, you might reasonably be concerned.
Turns out, deceptive reviews are commonplace online—and so are doubts about them. The research organization Mintel found that 57 percent of surveyed consumers are suspicious of companies or products that only have positive online reviews. And 49 percent believe companies probably give incentives for online reviews.
Fortunately, there are a few good techniques that can help you tell truth from fiction.
The article lists several ways to tell the difference. What are yours?
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Another good night not to sleep in a eucalyptus tree.
(Score: 2) by Hyperturtle on Friday October 23 2015, @02:03AM
Go on to new egg and tell me you still believe this.
"product sucks. came in right box and was right model but did not say on website it would not work with my computer. Never using this brand again because X is so much better" From a person who is not a verified owner.
I look at most of the reviews and try to determine a theme. If the theme seems to be "WOW THIS IS SO COPIED FROM ANOTHER GREAT REVIEW 5 STARS" or the "kicked my dog and impregnated my sister and then misjudged the delivery date by 3 weeks causing financial loss due to improper planning; wait for a sale"... then I try to find the other funny ones, too.
I will be a corporate shill and say that I trust consumer reports, and outside of them, I believe I have to make an educated guess based on the box ingredients and what my friends and my own experiences have shown. Online reviews by anonymous people are sadly best presumed to be a scam, in the same way that hit counters used to be what made it easy to tell if a website had funny content prior to reading what was there.
Even if real names and verified ownership for a review was required -- people will still make stuff up to attract attention to themselves. Why anyone would think otherwise is beyond me, but it could be that I am an attention whore myself and make posts to attract attention to myself..and thus recognize these people when I see them when reading through reviews. But I want to think I am not alone in my ability to spot clearly unhelpful reviews.