Featured article by Habib Khan, Independent Technology Author
There is a real world problem of biased tech product reviews everywhere. Can you imagine if some reviewer was paid off, to give glaring reviews about a medical appliance? The sad truth is that this happens quite often than not.
The consequences of biased actions are dreadful to the mass population in many cases. More so, people who have zero technical knowledge of devices they want. Tech reviewers that seem to understand what they are talking about, influence people. However, many tech reviewers are just marketers. Besides, most reviewers do not know the mechanics of the devices they evaluate. In many cases, knowledge of what makes a particular device tick is thrown deep into the confines of the World Wide Web.
Technical Dishonesties
The chief reason why most reviewers get away with sham reviews is that many people do not have a deep understanding of their devices they use day in, day out. A recent study by SelectedBest shows that many people do not know how Facebook filters the ads they get on their pages, or how your mobile device has a unique ID, that Google uses to customize your ads.
Not many people are willing to understand the differences in technical terms like 32-bit and 64-bit computer systems. Because of similar shortfalls, biased reviewers accordingly throw in technical terms perceptibly, throwing you off some questioning you might have. After all, few can appreciate that these, sometimes ‘subtle’ differences, mean a lot at times.
The History of Biased Reviews
Biased reviews were here, even before the age of computers. To give you an idea, there was an author named Walt Whitman, who gave flagrant reviews of his book, “Leaves of Grass.” He went under various false names, publishing appraisals in widely circulated newspapers.
Whitman painstakingly influenced people to buy his books and succeeded in his efforts. Mind you, this fraud happened from 1855 to the last record of 1881. Whitman went as far as paying for segments in different publications under diverse pseudonyms. Nowadays, giving a fake review is just as simple as buying your products, rating them five stars online, and writing stark reviews, the familiar blog concerned with the matter TrustAdvisor mentions.
Current Biases in Tech Products
With the internet, writing a tech product review as simple as it could ever be. Disgracefully, some tech companies go as far as writing negative reviews of their competitors’ products. Sock-puppet is the name given to those who engage in such malpractice.
Some tech companies even form intricate aliases, which seem to have a chat amongst them, giving glittering reviews of select products. Some syndicates are also on the black market, to provide sock puppet services. The main reason such services exist is that most people trust others opinions, rather than an advertisement of a product. How unfortunate it is to know that perhaps, some of the people you put your faith in on for information, are just chatbots.
Steps To Mitigate Biased Reviews
Tech companies that do not employ some black market hacks, usually find themselves with the short end of the stick. This problem is worse for smaller tech companies, trying to have a market share. The malpractice of fake reviews is on high demand because, algorithms of most online markets, place products with more ratings and rapport, high up in the ranking.
Amazon and eBay have taken some bold steps in stemming the vice by tracking unusual patterns of evaluation. Even so, it is a challenging process for algorithms to pick out the wheat from the chaff. Moreover, sock puppets usually come up with solutions to circumnavigate the roadblocks placed to mitigate them.
Conclusion
A tech company like TripAdvisor lost confidence from people. Information leaked that restaurant owners were paying for likes on their platform. The number of resources placed to fight the vice costs TripAdvisor loads of revenue. What is more, biased tech reviews can also come from a political stance.
For instance, YouTube tech product reviewer, PewDiePie said some remarks on the 2016 US presidential election. His views did not stand well with many. Some of these people (he has many subscribers), took to task to downvote any product the tech and gaming guru ever ranked positively. These connections made some companies lose revenue, by merely having links to PewDiePie. Fortunately, some tech platforms are trying to deal with the problem, in a never-ending war.
About the Author
Habib Khan is the business associates in D.Venture that helps people to get the solid info about money, investment, the stock market and so forth. Instead, He specializes in ghost blogging over certain issues. You can connect with Habib on his website http://habibkhan.net/ and follow him on Twitter. https://twitter.com/hkhan
