Amazon Glitch
By John DeNardo |
Monday, February 16th, 2004 at
8:15 am
A recent glitch at Amazon shows how the review system is abused by people who have a vested interest in boosting sales with a positive review. Happily, the article mentions this:
Many prolific reviewers speculate that Harriet Klausner, 55, who has long reigned as No. 1, cannot possible read all the books she reviews. In a telephone interview, Klausner, in turn, accused the No. 2 reviewer of getting people to vote for him and against her in a “desperate attempt to be No. 1.”
Me-ow! It’s about time someone noticed. And, in my opinion, it is not speculation. It’s cold, hard math.
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So now, the Amazon reviews and the concommittant stars are, essentially, useless. You never know when a good review by an anonymous poster is from the author’s friends, family, himself, or even his dog. Same thing for the bad reviews. I usually choose something based on the description and not the reviews any way….
I don’t buy fiction books based on reviews – who knows my taste but me anyway.
As for non-fiction reference books, I would read a review to get an idea of what people though of – as a tool, does it do the job. I also read and pay attention to reviews for tools, toys, etc. It’s obvious when somebody is fawning though – you just ignore those reviews.
John – you HAVE to write the HK rant though – you have a lot of ammunition already.