Someone asked if user generated reviews are going away because the sheer amount is creating irrelevance, a la ehow, a la yahoo questions. My thoughts? I place them here copy and paste because I doubt it’s coherent or cogent enough to put somewhere important. Funny that this may be the most important place there is. Balderdash. read on.
Tools will resolve this issue – Keith said it succinctly.
We just unlocked a whole new world of aggregate data. The next industry and innovation will be entrepreneurs that combine graphic design with art with science and start producing infinitely more accessible interpretations of the data. That includes the high brow data visualization field, but it also includes niche aggregators for industries and brands. Revinate for hotels, is an example. I can’t aggregate all that data myself – I don’t know what an algorithm is. But they give me the capacity to access the aggregate data. Now it’s part of their job and the job of other clever individuals to pick the data needles out of the haystack of worthless data and make it accessible and meaningful for the lay person. *THAT IS WHERE THE GOLD IS*. Period. That is where there is money to be made. All this other data wrangling is just a precursor to a more beautiful aesthetic to it’s existence.
In the simplest of ways, this is going to get better. Yes…. Gary Danko or Spago or The Standard NY will have 1000’s upon 1000’s of reviews, but user interaction (“was this review helpful?”) coupled with simple weights and balances on user profiles will create more relevancy to reviews, with “date” and time of review to be ever more relevant in the future.
The aggregate data is fantastic, and a treasure trove for any brand being reviewed. The trending of ratings has some nuances, and idiosyncrasies (change of ownership, rebranding, etc)… so date will always trump other factors in trending/tracking.
Whether user reviews will “end” isn’t the question… it’s how they will exist and change over time.
User interaction, from reviews to social nets, will power the semantic web. It’s the future. It’s not going anywhere.
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