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I can't blame these companies, they are people, they have to make a living. It's not like they are actively harming anyone. So who should we blame? Google are also just trying to make money, they are also not hurting anyone over here.
> It's not like they are actively harming anyone. How am I not harmed if I buy a product that is no good?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Google didn't build their rating system specifically to blackmail businesses into paying for tools that can get negative ratings removed Quite the opposite, Google is constantly being harassed by lawyers employed by businesses with bad ratings, using legal tricks to have legitimate reviews removed. Then what‘s left is a very distorted picture of the actual consumer ratings, so the system is quite skewed in business…
I'm not even sure what non-distorted ratings are supposed to be. What you mention obviously makes them more inaccurate, but they aren't accurate to begin with. Ratings are a messy human affair, I don't know why we bother quantifying it...
It's human nature to be predisposed to leave reviews when you have a bad experience.
Then you have those f'ing weirdos who leave reviews like "Burger was really good and all but the food I had at the French Laundry was way better! 2/5 stars!" at a local pub or something.
And then if the owner gets caught up in some shit that hits the news the reviews get brigaded by trolls who don't even live in a 500 mile radius or have any intention of ever going.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Google didn't build their rating system specifically to blackmail businesses into paying for tools that can get negative ratings removed Quite the opposite, Google is constantly being harassed by lawyers employed by businesses with bad ratings, using legal tricks to have legitimate reviews removed. Then what‘s left is a very distorted picture of the actual consumer ratings, so the system is quite skewed in business…
I'm not even sure what non-distorted ratings are supposed to be. What you mention obviously makes them more inaccurate, but they aren't accurate to begin with. Ratings are a messy human affair, I don't know why we bother quantifying it...
It's human nature to be predisposed to leave reviews when you have a bad experience.
Then you have those f'ing weirdos who leave reviews like "Burger was really good and all but the food I had at the French Laundry was way better! 2/5 stars!" at a local pub or something.
And then if the owner gets caught up in some shit that hits the news the reviews get brigaded by trolls who don't even live in a 500 mile radius or have any intention of ever going.
If you're truly interested in finding a good place to eat or get your oil changed or whatever there are far better methods than Yelp or google reviews.
I've been offered so many goodies for good reviews on everything from Amazon to restaurants that want good reviews on Yelp. Sometimes they will even offer you a coupon for a 5* review on a receipt. That aside, why is it that people get to commit fraud and Google gets the blame?
From the examples in the article where the reviewers covered multiple businesses hundreds of miles apart like they were next to home, Google certainly has the location data to see if they were ever there, or for local businesses, knows who lives in range to be customers. Amazon and others have massive data on their users, and could apply a lot of AI tech to validate reviews for credibility, if they wanted to bother to do it right.
I've noticed a number of fake seeming reviews on local businesses here in Vancouver, BC. The accounts seem to be leaving fake reviews across Canada. It's particularly suspicious to me given the improper grammar and almost entire lack of reference to anything specific to the business. The accounts also seem to give 100% 5 star reviews. There's no option in Google Maps to report these users for being fraudulent. For ex…
I do actually think Which? is a fairly good company that does a good thorough job (and I've bought a subscription before), but this is hardly news. Online review companies have no incentive to make their reviews accurate and their customers (the people who they're actually reviewing) are highly incentivised to cheat.
how is this news?
Give the business an app to generate unique QR codes for each customer, and then have that customer use the code to make the review.
Now everyone knows that the review comes from a person who actually bought the product, the reviewer is more likely to be honest because their identity is known to the seller, and the business can even remediate the issue because they know which customer left the review.
To those saying anonymity equals honesty in the review, I really don't think that's the case, nor is it fair to the business. Much like our courts require an accuser to identify themselves to their attacker so their attacker can defend themselves, businesses should at least know who their accuser is, even if the rest of us don't.
I've been offered so many goodies for good reviews on everything from Amazon to restaurants that want good reviews on Yelp. Sometimes they will even offer you a coupon for a 5* review on a receipt. That aside, why is it that people get to commit fraud and Google gets the blame?