The Amazon Whisperer (2013)
fastcompany.com
fastcompany.com
That having been said, patent trolls don't really use patent infringement, but the threat of an infringement suit. They send threatening letters and wait for their target to realize that the court battle costs more than paying the fee.
http://www.amazon.com/Ivation-Waterproof-Bluetooth-Handsfree...
> Sample provided for review.
> Got this at no cost for unbiased review.
> *I received a sample product from Ivation.
Reviews are much more scattered if you filter by "Verified purchase only". It's interesting that this drops the number of reviews from 165 to 104 for a product which is designed for and presumably sold only on Amazon.
I'm not necessarily suggesting these reviews are shady, but given the other aspects of Amazon that this company tracks, it would seem reasonable to suggest they've figured out a way to track influential reviewers likely to give them a positive review.
EDIT: downvoters, care to explain what's wrong with this comment?
IMO I don't think religion, even if its "super-duper" is really on topic in a discussion about the quality and ethics of Amazon reviews. I hope this doesn't come off as critical, I'm just trying to explain where your donvoters may be coming from.
Occasionally, there will be a shining star. Recently I ordered an AIO printer and a reviewer had a fairly comprehensive reviews on multiple models, almost at a short article length.
Music seems to be one category where I sometimes find value in the reviews. It seems like people are more forthcoming about their music tastes, even though subjective, than what they think about utilitarian products.
I'm finding I have to work harder to parse meaning out of Amazon reviews than I did a few years ago. I don't see how this benefits Amazon, but I also don't see them doing much to fix it.
They are mostly bogus these days.
Unless you can find 3 star reviews, I usually read those.
You can also report the review and tell Amazon that you think the review is bogus.
Do you have any data to back up the claim that most of the recent reviews are bogus?
That's a bogus review, it's paid. You might argue free product is not payment but the IRS would then like to have a word with you (ask the people who got "free" cars from Oprah).
Amazon also gives free products for review (Amazon Vine) but these are made very clear with a banner above the review, and will remain part of the program so long as they continue to receive a high number of 'helpful' votes on their reviews.
Yes, after buying numerous products with great ratings and discovering that the people who rated the product negatively were often right about their complains.
From what I have seen people don't put to much effort to praise products, however they take the time to complain when they feel unsatisfied or burnt by a product.
I'm not trying to convince you or anyone but this methods has worked rather well for me.
Most people don't put any effort into writing a positive review for a product that does what its suppose todo or exceeds expectations.
I than take all the negative reviews and see the common reason for the product failure than determine if that is a concern for me ,before buying.
http://money.cnn.com/2015/10/18/technology/amazon-lawsuit-fa...
I would be interested to build a tool which tries to analyze the reviews e.g. using Natural Language Processing (NLP) or Machine Learning techniques to get the "real" picture for a given product. NLP could help to identify the most criticized aspects for a given product so a potential buyer does not have to go through any single review.
I am not an expert in NLP/ML though. Any ideas how this could be done?
Not to throw shade on these guys but you get what you pay for.
Did that bother anyone else?
Now, you probably won't see the media report on racist hiring practices in Jewish companies as quickly as they do anti-Semitism. ;)
It's basically an society-accepted fanatical cult.
I bet none of those 150 were women, they wouldn't be tolerated to work together, or pray together, etc.
You know nothing about Orthodox Jews do you?
"Hey we need someone else for a customer service position - you know anyone?" "Sure, my neighbor's son is looking a job."
"Yeah, about 70 Orthodox Jews and this one Italian dude who probably won't adhere to their culture. Might let him work from home."
Is it discrimination based on religion? Obviously.
What? No. Ashkenazim might be genetically similar, but even there, not a race. And there are also Sephardim. Also Jews from Africa? Definitely not a race.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Jewish_Race
Particularly, this statement: "Genetic studies on Jews show that most Jews worldwide bear a common genetic heritage which originates in the Middle East, and that they bear their strongest resemblance to the peoples of the Fertile Crescent.[58][59][60] The genetic composition of different Jewish groups shows that Jews share a common genetic pool dating back 4,000 years, as a marker of their common ancestral origin."
That Jew/Hebrew isn't a race is a very new claim to me. What do you have to support it?
Is Christian a race?
Also, this (PDF warning): https://www.opm.gov/forms/pdf_fill/sf181.pdf.
The other commenter thinks that race doesn't exist. Most stuff I've read implied it did. Nobody doubts the existence of Christian religion.
It isn't. It's not a race like that (nor, really, in any other way).
Yes, some Jews have a common genetic pattern.
Many don't.
Either you're talking about the religion, which is clearly not a race (as you said). Or you're talking about a group that generally shares the same religion, that descended from a few groups that lived co-located thousands of years ago. Of course, many are descended from those groups. What makes that a race?
And I didn't mention Christianity to ask if anyone doubted it existed. I mentioned Christianity to show how silly it is to consider Jews a race. If Christianity isn't a race (even though many Christians descend from a common ancestor), then Jews aren't a race.
- Technically, if you are a Christian, you probably believe you descended from Adam & Eve, sort of the ultimate common ancestor.
That's pretty much what I'm saying. I think the 5 races on the form conform to my understanding of race, so I think that part is right as well.
I guess fundamentally I can't wrap my head around the idea of identifying a religious group and calling that a race. As I mention, we don't do it with any other religious group, so why Jews?
But now I think you bring up a fair point, and as they grow, they're probably facing pressure to diversify. Their numbers will start looking suspicious, and it will get harder to find employees within the same community, if nothing else. And how they handle it will affect their company culture and reputation for sure.
Inclusiveness can be hard work; in an ideal world, it would develop organically, with time to learn as they go. I'm sure it will go better if they work at it proactively rather than resist it. But they live in a multi-cultural city, so I'm sure they have some life experience.
I love the hint in the article about that process. It's colorful and shows that it's not just about cultures, but also about individuals:
> "The buyer that does all the storage products, he's the only guy I let work out of home," Pikarski says. "He's Italian."
Quirky likely had far more scruples and far less connections than these guys, plus I bet Quirky had far less balls when it came to negotiating with a vendor.
These buyers are likely expert and negotiating the price down, or even playing vendors against each other, to get the costs as low as possible.
Their savvy in being able to react quickly with a response product is likely largely driven by their business accumen in this regard...
Quirky was too altruistic in the way they likely handled the manufacturing.
Remember, success in business can often be a reward for some pretty shitty behaviors.
IOQ, Quirky is a vanity platform like Print-on-Demand book companies, not a business enabler.
You used to read everything as terminal text back in the day, right? This one scrolls and renders better. ;)