Seems like the reviews industry could have some problems. Nielsen recently raised red flags with their annual “trust in advertising” survey.
The most startling thing in the data was that over 40% of people said they were skeptical of online reviews. Even on “trusted” review websites like Trip Advisor and Yelp.
Seems like people in the mainstream are catching on to the fake review problem that’s out there. Where business owners will sometimes leave positive reviews for themselves and sometimes competitors will leave negative ones.
To me, there’s no real quick fix solution here. Even with Yelp, who has a “review filter” that is supposed “filter and remove fake reviews”, most people would say it’s not effective. Small businesses have famously cited Yelp for sometimes even filtering and removing real reviews left by real customers, while publishing and keeping fake negative reviews.
I think as more and more people in the mainstream become aware of this, review websites will lose their value. That if people don’t know which reviews are real and which are fake, what’s the point of visiting the website.
There is a real danger that these review websites that have sprung up and had success in the last 5 years or so will find themselves in serious peril and danger of going the way of the dinosaurs. They need to figure out a solution that will do a much better job of figuring out which reviews are legitimate and which ones aren’t.