I think the problem is that a lot of people misuse reviews. When I read Amazon or Yelp ratings, I rarely look at how many stars something has. People add or subtract stars for reasons that don't make sense and don't mean anything. I have seen 3-star reviews on Yelp with the text, "This is the best food I've ever had in my life, the service was amazing, and it was cheap." Why that is not 5 stars is beyond me, but it's the Internet... and people are weird.
When looking at reviews, I read the content of the review to see if what upset the reviewer would also upset me. (I was looking for dentists on Yelp the other day, and saw a review that was something along the lines of "My insurance wouldn't pay the claim, so they made me pay!! Bastards!!". Although that one star review brought down the overall rating of the business, it is a problem with the review, not with the business. The review was for his insurance company, not for the dentist.)
Similarly, I read glowing reviews and look for the parts I care about. If I'm reading a review of a digital camera, I really don't care if the reviewer thought it looked nice or that the box was pretty, I care how long it takes from the time I turn the power switch on to when I can take the first picture. Obviously the reviewer could lie about this, but I've never seen it happen.
So, you get out what you put in. If you just look at the stars, you could probably save yourself a lot of time by flipping a coin.
I do the same. But many people don't have the same level of sophistication or simply don't have the time to spend so they just look at the aggregate review and buy the top-rated product. That why I think Vine is potentially subversive.
I'd love to see Amazon reviews have a HN/Reddit/Digg-style up/down vote system where crap reviews automatically drop off and aren't factored into the overall score.
When looking at reviews, I read the content of the review to see if what upset the reviewer would also upset me. (I was looking for dentists on Yelp the other day, and saw a review that was something along the lines of "My insurance wouldn't pay the claim, so they made me pay!! Bastards!!". Although that one star review brought down the overall rating of the business, it is a problem with the review, not with the business. The review was for his insurance company, not for the dentist.)
Similarly, I read glowing reviews and look for the parts I care about. If I'm reading a review of a digital camera, I really don't care if the reviewer thought it looked nice or that the box was pretty, I care how long it takes from the time I turn the power switch on to when I can take the first picture. Obviously the reviewer could lie about this, but I've never seen it happen.
So, you get out what you put in. If you just look at the stars, you could probably save yourself a lot of time by flipping a coin.