Online reviews – where would we be without them? More to the point, where would Amazon be without them – to lots of people who come to Amazon, the user reviews they find there for their millions of products are an important reason to keep coming back. And yet, Amazon and dedicated review websites like TripAdvisor have long been questioned for the integrity of their reviews. Hotels that have been panned by users have for years complained that those negative reviews are the work of nasty competitors trying to trash them using underhanded means. Normally, when people read about these reactions from unhappy hotel owners, they think they are just sore losers. From news coming out these days though, one begins to wonder if perhaps those hotel owners weren't sore losers after all.
The problem really is what those hotel owners have been suggesting all along – review websites are crawling with fake reviews – fake positive reviews that sellers publish about themselves, and fake negative reviews that they have published to run their competitors down.
Are these big businesses going to actually get down and muck about like that? You'd be surprised. What would surprise you even more is a little they have to spend to do it – how about 10 cents a fake review? Of course, you get what you pay for – such a low-paid review would be barely literate. But a well-written review doesn't run much costlier – about one dollar should do the trick.
The problem really is what those hotel owners have been suggesting all along – review websites are crawling with fake reviews – fake positive reviews that sellers publish about themselves, and fake negative reviews that they have published to run their competitors down.
Are these big businesses going to actually get down and muck about like that? You'd be surprised. What would surprise you even more is a little they have to spend to do it – how about 10 cents a fake review? Of course, you get what you pay for – such a low-paid review would be barely literate. But a well-written review doesn't run much costlier – about one dollar should do the trick.