

"Was this review useful" button earns Amazon $2.7bn - casca
http://www.uie.com/articles/magicbehindamazon/

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incision
_> "The most helpful review garnered only 566 votes, even though it was
written on the first day the book was released and Amazon has sold more than
2,000,000 copies since."_

The first day part is key here. In my experience writing many and reading more
reviews on Amazon, being first to post is key in having a review marked
helpful.

Also, though they've apparently done some things to prevent the most
straightforward gaming of the system, there are huge, obvious holes for abuse.

Consider SimCity[0]. The review section is worthless. The spotlight reviews
are all 1-star rants. The most helpful 5-star reviews are sarcastic rants. The
only remotely positive reviews, genuinely helpful reviews are buried.

The Amazon review section is a battleground for all sorts of Internet wars of
preference.

I'm a fan of the recent "X reviewers made a similar statement". I've been
hoping Google would introduce something similar for the Play store.

0:
[http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007VTVRFA/](http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007VTVRFA/)

