How Reliable are Online Reviews?

     I, like many people in my generation, suffer from an addiction. My addiction goes by the name of Amazon.com. This addiction began with the phenomenon that is Amazon prime. The fact that I can shop from my bed and have my products within two days is astounding. One click ordering makes this even more of a problem in my life. It has simply become too easy to buy things online. The only slow part is actually deciding what to buy. A very common way to do this is to read the product reviews. This doesn't only apply to Amazon though, I do this for everything online. For the most part, I thought this was a pretty solid way to weed out the crappy products. A few days ago, thanks to the love of my life (Reddit) I came across an article that turned my feelings towards product reviews upside down. This article really put a strain on my relationship with Amazon. The article is entitled “I Created a Fake Business and Bought it an Amazing Online Reputation”, by Kashmir Hill. It can be found here

     In this article, the author invented a business called Freaking' Awesome Karaoke Express (read the first letter of each word). The catch was that the business never actually existed. Her goal was to create a strong online reputation for a business that doesn't exist. She did this using some companies that in exchange for small amounts of money (usually $5-$10), will provide services such as increasing your number of likes on Facebook, followers on twitter, or maybe even reviews on Yelp. Originally, I did not expect this to work very easily. Boy was I wrong. For around $20 she had a significant following on twitter and Facebook, and even some Yelp reviews.

This picture cost Hill $1.25!

     Long story short, her experiment proved that online reviews are not totally reliable. The only website that caught her was Yelp, which has some sanctions for businesses that it determines are buying reviews. The reviews that she received on Facebook and Yelp were from people who clearly took this business (fake reviews) very seriously. As, FAKE's reviews even contained personal anecdotes about the service that were extremely convincing. She even got several calls from people who were interested in her services! However, she did not return these calls.

     So what does this mean? This means that shopping online is getting a whole lot harder. Now how am I supposed to know whether the product I think I am purchasing is actually what I think it is? This sucks! In the article, Hill mentions the importance of only using the reviews of people you trust. While this advice seems good, in reality how will I know who is reviewing the product? I can't imagine myself recognizing a reviewer on Amazon and thinking to myself, "Oh it's StuffBuyer12345, his reviews are usually spot on!" This article serves as just another indicator that people are dishonest, and computers make is way too easy to lie and trick people.