Comments on: Local Reviews are Overrated

By: Local Search vs Local - Tech Soapbox

Local Search vs Local - Tech Soapbox — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 18:24:14 +0000

[...] I’ve changed my tune before – particularly that reviews are overrated and recommendations are the future. [...]

By: Recommendations > Reviews. Yet no one is doing it in the local space. - Tech Soapbox

Thu, 19 Jun 2008 23:02:32 +0000

[...] earlier post started my train of thought, but 24 hours lated I’ve decided: The focus should be on recommendations, not [...]

By: Jacob

Jacob — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 16:36:27 +0000

I disagree, an example in the past few weeks that I’ve looked up time and time again are reviews on golf courses. Sure there might be only a few areas where local reviews add something, but where those reviews are added I find the information invaluable. I go to local sites based on who has the most reviews typically.

By: Ahmed

Ahmed — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 15:43:21 +0000

Yep Dave – just one of the many damn issues.

I think I’ve literally about-faced on reviews in 72 hours.

By: Dave

Dave — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 15:38:29 +0000

Another issue: the quandry if someone is advertising on your site and gets a bad review. According to the client, it’s a competitor who’s just bad mouthing the client. Do you A) do nothing and potentially lose an advertiser, B) remove the review and risk a reputation for censoring reviews of advertisers (and what if it really wasn’t a competitor but a customer with a valid bad review?) and also put you at rick for the reviewer to start bad mouthing YOUR site all over the place, C) mediate between the two parties to see if it’s actually a valid complaint and see if you can negotiate some sort of agreememnt between the client and reviewer?

Obvious A will cost you money. B can cost you your reputation, and also open you up to lawsuits from disgruntled sue-happy people who feel you’re helping people slander their businesses. C will eat up lots of time and resources and in many cases will never appease an realistic nut case reviewer.

By: Ahmed

Ahmed — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 04:13:42 +0000

Ahh – not in NA just yet. Not for another two months!

Okay yes – in the purely neighborhood sense, *IF* you can build the base (which you guys are doing), then it works. But at the same time – it doesn’t. A recommendation is NOT a review. Maybe a follow-up post – the future is in recommendations, not in reviews

By: Michael Wood-Lewis

Michael Wood-Lewis — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 04:11:30 +0000

A contrarian view! Ahmed… I’ll agree if you add “anonymous” to your panning of most local reviews. We find that reviews from clearly identified nearby neighbors are tremendously popular in the 130 online neighborhood forums that we host in our pilot metro-area (greater Burlington, VT). Need a plumber? Ask a neighbor. Better yet, use Front Porch Forum and ask 100 neighbors.

And one other problem with reviews… many get stale quickly. A restaurant might get a few great reviews over a period of months, and then get a bad score from the health inspector or temporarily close due to a kitchen fire… the reviews likely won’t catch that… but asking 100 neighbors might.

Cheers! And welcome back to North America. -Michael