Authors and other product creators are known to sometimes invite friends and family to post favorable reviews in order to spur sales. It sometimes works, but it also skews the intregity of Amazon’s review system. One woman, whose reviews are virtually positive and who has written over 25,000 reviews, is suspected of being a paid reviewer.

Having reviews that are trustworthy is one of the selling points Amazon offers to buyers, so biassed reviews are damaging its reputation for transparent, honest reviews that help in making a buying decision. So it is attempting to filter out reviews that appear not to be impartial. According to the Times, ” its sweeping but hazy purge has generated an uproar about what it means to review in an era when everyone is an author and everyone is a reviewer.”

This isn’t an exact science, and Amazon isn’t saying how it selects reviews for elimnination. But they are serious about the sweep they are making thrugh the existing reviews, looking for phoney ones. Un doubtedly, some valid reviews have been mistakenly removed, as well.

If you want to read the whole NY Times story, check here: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/23/technology/amazon-book-reviews-deleted-in-a-purge-aimed-at-manipulation.html?pagewanted=all&_r=1&

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