
An algorithm to ferret out fake reviews online - ColinWright
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/20/technology/finding-fake-reviews-online.html?_r=2
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wccrawford
I think it's a losing battle. I've come up with my own way to judge reviews,
and if everyone did it that way, it wouldn't be nearly as useful. I'm going to
share it anyhow:

I mostly judge by the negative reviews. Reviews can be good or bad for
ridiculous reasons. It's easier for me to filter out the bad ridiculous
reviews. (UPS didn't arrive on time, item was the wrong shade of blue, etc.)

With the remaining bad reviews, I read to find out WHY they hated the product.
If the reasons are things I don't care about (toaster oven doesn't make eggs
well) then there's probably nothing about the product I would hate.

I do read the good reviews, too, though. Sometimes there's a good, but hidden,
feature that trumps a bad feature. (Toaster oven is perfect size for baking an
RROD XBox 360.) But this is pretty seldom.

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Egregore
It would be great if this algorithm will work out, but as we have seen with
other aspects (like google search and SEO) there will be people who can game
those algorithms.

