"Was this review useful" button earns Amazon $2.7bn

uie.com

2 pointscasca1 comment

>"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/

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