Disclaimer: I work for Amazon, but my opinions do not necessarily reflect the company, yadi yada.
One of the things that you touched on that needs to be fleshed out more is the fact that Googling for random products is a massive pain. Not only in the sheer volume of data you get back, but also because so little of it is trustworthy.
Say I want to buy a new digital camera. I look at the Nikon D40 and wonder "is it any good"? I Google up "Nikon D40 reviews" and I get a gigantic list of pages. Some are clearly spam, others clearly astroturfing for Nikon, and others look like they could be legitimate reviews... but you really don't know. Signal to noise for consumer-level research really sucks on Google.
Now take Amazon on the flip side (that I use all the time, and not just because I work there). I trust the reviews that are there - because I know that bad/good reviews are not removed or otherwise manipulated. The star rating isn't spam, isn't fake, isn't bought and paid for like millions of "review sites" scattered across the tubes.
Yes, there are ways to break Amazon's review system, but for the most part it is a trustworthy metric, and although not a complete replacement for in-depth research, particularly for big-ticket items, it is still extremely helpful for everyday shopping.
Yes, there are ways to break Amazon's review system
Why would anyone want to break Amazon's review system? There is no incentive to do it. There are gazillion review sites because they make money through ads, affiliate marketing etc, and lots of them are junk/spam.
The ROI in breaking Amazon's review system doesn't justify even trying it. That is why so many people trust Amazon's reviews than any other site's.
I can think of at least one person: the manufacturer. If my product is receiving poor reviews on a much-visited and trustworthy site, it would be in my favor to skew my reviews on said website to the high end.
So while there's no reason for Amazon to break the system, there are certainly many others who would.
One thing I have always wondered about is why don't Amazon show ,whether reviewer purchased the item from Amazon or not, next to their review. NewEgg does it and I do give more weight to those reviewers who actually bought the item. I am guessing that this could have some privacy concerns for certain items (say vibrator) but they can make user opt out of this feature if they want.
One of the things that you touched on that needs to be fleshed out more is the fact that Googling for random products is a massive pain. Not only in the sheer volume of data you get back, but also because so little of it is trustworthy.
Say I want to buy a new digital camera. I look at the Nikon D40 and wonder "is it any good"? I Google up "Nikon D40 reviews" and I get a gigantic list of pages. Some are clearly spam, others clearly astroturfing for Nikon, and others look like they could be legitimate reviews... but you really don't know. Signal to noise for consumer-level research really sucks on Google.
Now take Amazon on the flip side (that I use all the time, and not just because I work there). I trust the reviews that are there - because I know that bad/good reviews are not removed or otherwise manipulated. The star rating isn't spam, isn't fake, isn't bought and paid for like millions of "review sites" scattered across the tubes.
Yes, there are ways to break Amazon's review system, but for the most part it is a trustworthy metric, and although not a complete replacement for in-depth research, particularly for big-ticket items, it is still extremely helpful for everyday shopping.