Amazon review ranking changed

[HareBrain]

And not for the better.

What I mean is when you ask Amazon to display "top" reviews for a book or product. Until recently, what would happen is that you'd get the reviews with the greatest number of "helpful" votes (also taking into account the number of "not-helpful" votes, I think, but not a straightforward net of them). These reviews tended to be the longest, best-written and most amusing.

Now you get something like this:

Amazon.co.uk:Customer reviews: Snobs: A Novel

None of the "top" eight reviews have any "helpful" votes at all. They are all one line. The supposedly 4th most helpful review out of 77 is, in its entirety, "gave as a gift".

I note, however, they are all recent, and all verified purchases. So is this how Amazon is weighting "helpfulness" now? It makes finding genuinely useful reviews time-consuming and haphazard.

One star, Amazon.

 

[Serendipity]

It was not all that long ago Amazon had to take action against people with pseudonym accounts giving overly good reviews to their own novels. I suspect this is another step in trying to get reviews from customers who don't have a hidden bias towards or against the author / publication.

I personally don't think this is the right step because people do buy novels from sources other than Amazon and give genuine helpful reviews on Amazon.

Once again the greed of the few, who are rigging the system (i.e. Amazon list rankings) in their favour, are making life more difficult for the good and many, and that really annoys me.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

It's now that they give higher visibility to verified purchases - you have to actively seek out the other reviews

 

[Boneman]

And not for the better.

I note, however, they are all recent, and all verified purchases. So is this how Amazon is weighting "helpfulness" now? It makes finding genuinely useful reviews time-consuming and haphazard.

One star, Amazon.

Yeah, I noticed my review of TGP didn't appear on Amazon...protectionism! And self-defeating in the end, I think. Can't find good reviews on Amazon? Don't buy the book...

 

[Dave]

There is a fundamental problem with "online" "trust" here which I can't see any way around. People trust reviews from personal acquaintances, or else in magazines, and on TV, from people they respect, or feel they have come to know. They will also trust reviews from small online communities where they have got to know the other members - so Chronicles (or Goodreads before it was taken over) will work.

People should absolutely never trust reviews from huge websites where anyone can join up and create sock puppets. I can't think of anywhere in "the real world" anyone would trust such spam, although door-to-door leaflets (We are in the area cleaning gutters and noticed yours) must work or they wouldn't do it and (Mrs. A of Chelmsford said she would never use another cleaner again) must appeal to some people.

This is not confined to online book reviews either. My wife will always look on Trip Adviser before we holiday somewhere. Everyone who posts there has a complaint, or some beef (many spurious or simply outright lies.) However, if you always take that into consideration, then it is still useful for things such as, does the hotel supply towels for the beach? Unfortunately, some people do believe these website reviews. The hotel we stayed at last month had suffered as a consequence, but it meant it was quieter for us!

Also Amazon reviews of other products are equally as bad, saying things like "it took 5 days to arrive" rather than does the product actually work and is it fit for purpose.

The problem is that the old printed sources of reviews are being replaced. I picked up an NME yesterday. It is a bit different from when I bought The New Musical Express in the 1970's. It is free. It is tiny, in colour, full of pictures and adverts. It covers film as well as music. While not to my taste, I'm sure the contributors reviews are respected. I remember magazines reviewing all kinds of products. There must be hundreds of other magazines and newspapers that are no longer printed now. How can they compete with the "free" internet?

Blogging will work too, once an audience has been built up. I'm not sure if that huge surge in people Blogging a few years ago has continued. I think not. I can now see that Chronicles is quite an unusual website, and we probably need more communities like this, or more Blogs, and more online magazines like Tangent and Galactic Journey.

 

[HareBrain]

I noticed my review of TGP didn't appear on Amazon

Customer Review

I look forward to your review of How to Use the Internet.

It's true, though, that you have to choose "all reviewers" before you can see yours. I do that as a matter of course, but others might not.

 

[Aquilonian]

All these huge American companies provide a worse service as they get bigger, especially as they approach to monopoly and thus have no further incentive to be any good as there's no competition. It's also an outcome of Amazon being run by algorithms not people- they can easily determine whether a reviewer has bought a book off them, but can't determine if the reviewer is actually the author's cousin.

I review books a lot on Amazon, using same name I use on here, but I rarely buy from them because I don't like how they treat their employees and because they're wiping out independent bookshops.

I think Amazon reviews are very useful but only if you use them intelligently. I ignore all reviews smaller than one paragraph. I generally read Amazon's own blurb about the book first to see if I might possibly like it, then go to the longest critical reviews (one or two stars) to see if anyone has made a plausible well-informed case against them.

 

[Cathbad]

All these huge American companies provide a worse service as they get bigger, especially as they approach to monopoly and thus have no further incentive to be any good as there's no competition.

This is why past Congresses tried to prevent monopolies.

 

[svalbard]

I pay no attention to the reviews on Amazon( although I will write reviews). Download a sample of the book. You should have an idea within the first few pages if it is worth perserving with.

 

[Cathbad]

I pay no attention to the reviews on Amazon( although I will write reviews). Download a sample of the book. You should have an idea within the first few pages if it is worth perserving with.

But many people do use reviews to decide if they want the book.

 

[svalbard]

But many people do use reviews to decide if they want the book.

That is true. Hence why I write honest reviews myself.