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Online Reviews - the good, the bad and the lying
Who can you trust?

11 August 2013

by Huw Collingbourne

Should we trust reviews online?

We may all claim to be sceptical of the honesty and impartiality of online reviews. Even so, before going to a restaurant, I must admit that I generally take a quick look at the reviews it has garnered on TripAdvisor. Before buying a book, I glance through its reviews on Amazon or Good Reads. This, in spite of the fact that there is nothing preventing authors and their friends (or enemies) from skewing reviews for or against a book. And reviewers on TripAdvisor have even praised a restaurant that doesn’t exist!

I was interested, then, to receive this unsolicited email this week:

DO YOU NEED POSITIVE REVIEWS/RATINGS ONLINE FOR YOUR BUSINESS?

We can post positive ratings/reviews on TripAdvisor, Yahoo Local, Google Places, Insider Pages, YellowPages, MerchantCircle, SuperPages, and the list goes on!

REVIEWS ARE 100% SAFE, NATURALLY DISTRIBUTED, POSTED FROM DIFFERENT ACCOUNTS & IP ADDRESSES & MAC ADDRESSES

Is there anything online we can really trust, I wonder?