Comments on: Who wrote that review? http://blog.loladex.com/2008/05/25/who-wrote-that-review/ The Loladex blog Fri, 12 Feb 2010 13:31:14 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: Shubham http://blog.loladex.com/2008/05/25/who-wrote-that-review/#comment-357 Shubham Fri, 12 Feb 2010 13:31:14 +0000 http://loladex.wordpress.com/?p=51#comment-357 yeah..complete mid work..when to trust the review and when to not..! fake reviews waste time.! :-( yeah..complete mid work..when to trust the review and when to not..! fake reviews waste time.! :-(

]]> By: Laurence Hooper http://blog.loladex.com/2008/05/25/who-wrote-that-review/#comment-323 Laurence Hooper Fri, 26 Sep 2008 06:03:09 +0000 http://loladex.wordpress.com/?p=51#comment-323 Hi Sjors -- It's definitely true that having millions of users, a la Yelp, has many more advantages than disadvantages. My feeling is that future sites will tap into *both* types of information wherever available -- information from trusted friends will always get top billing, but it'll be supplemented and backstopped by information from "strangers" whose trustworthiness, ideally, can be evaluated by a variety of means. When Yelp adds Facebook Connect, in other words, I think they'll create a lot of value. Meanwhile, the idea of using algorithms to measure trustworthiness is interesting. Could it ever be good enough? Hard to say. BTW, at least one app already uses "friend of a friend" status as a good-enough approximation of trustworthiness, and I'm inclined to agree that the approach is viable. How about "friend of a friend of a friend," or third-degree connections? I'm dubious that such a tenuous connection is worthy of trust, but the numbers are mighty tempting. For instance, I have roughly the same number of friends on Facebook and LinkedIn -- a bit more than 200. If the social dynamics are comparable across both sites, I probably have more than 2 million third-level "friends" on Facebook. Are they reviewing restaurants in San Francisco? Of course -- though perhaps not yet on Loladex. There's an answer in there somewhere ... - Laurence Hi Sjors –

It’s definitely true that having millions of users, a la Yelp, has many more advantages than disadvantages. My feeling is that future sites will tap into *both* types of information wherever available — information from trusted friends will always get top billing, but it’ll be supplemented and backstopped by information from “strangers” whose trustworthiness, ideally, can be evaluated by a variety of means.

When Yelp adds Facebook Connect, in other words, I think they’ll create a lot of value.

Meanwhile, the idea of using algorithms to measure trustworthiness is interesting. Could it ever be good enough? Hard to say.

BTW, at least one app already uses “friend of a friend” status as a good-enough approximation of trustworthiness, and I’m inclined to agree that the approach is viable. How about “friend of a friend of a friend,” or third-degree connections? I’m dubious that such a tenuous connection is worthy of trust, but the numbers are mighty tempting.

For instance, I have roughly the same number of friends on Facebook and LinkedIn — a bit more than 200. If the social dynamics are comparable across both sites, I probably have more than 2 million third-level “friends” on Facebook. Are they reviewing restaurants in San Francisco? Of course — though perhaps not yet on Loladex.

There’s an answer in there somewhere …

- Laurence

]]> By: Sjors http://blog.loladex.com/2008/05/25/who-wrote-that-review/#comment-322 Sjors Wed, 24 Sep 2008 16:27:20 +0000 http://loladex.wordpress.com/?p=51#comment-322 I think that no-one would disagree with your points made, though on a quantitative size, I just don't have enough friends to have every restaurant in San Fransisco reviewed. Yelp does have so many users. How do you want to solve that? I could guess you can sort the real users from the fake ones by checking how fast their network is scaling up (in friends of friends way) those with a low number (or always the same 100 friends) would be seen as less trust worthy, whilst someone who is a friend of my friends can be seen as pretty trust worthy I think that no-one would disagree with your points made, though on a quantitative size, I just don’t have enough friends to have every restaurant in San Fransisco reviewed. Yelp does have so many users. How do you want to solve that? I could guess you can sort the real users from the fake ones by checking how fast their network is scaling up (in friends of friends way) those with a low number (or always the same 100 friends) would be seen as less trust worthy, whilst someone who is a friend of my friends can be seen as pretty trust worthy

]]> By: Steve McStud http://blog.loladex.com/2008/05/25/who-wrote-that-review/#comment-269 Steve McStud Sun, 25 May 2008 17:37:30 +0000 http://loladex.wordpress.com/?p=51#comment-269 You are completely right about when can we trust reviews and when cant we trust reviews. You would be amazed if you saw me speak at SES NY when I posed the simple question, "how many have not written a review for their own business?", and nobody raised their hand. Loladex is great idea, and the post was just written towards my audience. But as far as me myself writing fake reviews, I have not, as I have to many PM friends @ Y! and G Local who would burn me @ the stake if I did. Nice Post. You are completely right about when can we trust reviews and when cant we trust reviews. You would be amazed if you saw me speak at SES NY when I posed the simple question, “how many have not written a review for their own business?”, and nobody raised their hand.

Loladex is great idea, and the post was just written towards my audience. But as far as me myself writing fake reviews, I have not, as I have to many PM friends @ Y! and G Local who would burn me @ the stake if I did.

Nice Post.

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