A company’s reputation is virtually shaped by their reviews. Sites such as Yelp and Urbanspoon can offer enticing information that could sway potential customers.
Review sites can be a double edged sword; you could get a great review (which is good) or a bad review (which is really bad). For many consumers these reviews do affect their choice of professional services. The question is: Are these review sites really trustworthy?
According to npr online, some businesses are paying for fake reviews. Posters on online forums such as Craigslist are offering to buy and sell reviews for what most would see as pocket change. How will consumers be able to delineate between fake and genuine reviews?
Well, Jeff Hancock and his colleagues at Cornell University have developed software that can spot these fake reviews. In essence they are creating a language-based approach to detecting lies.