One advantage of user ratings is the effect it has on ecommerce. As a consumer that shops on-line often, the customer ratings on a product are very useful. I no longer buy something new without checking out the reviews of the product. A lot of the websites I shop on (Amazon, Ulta, Walmart) will let you sort products by high rating. So you can compare products very fast.
One disadvantage of these reviews and ratings is that you have to be very careful about where the reviews are coming from. I write for a blog that reviews products. This summer I was given a $200 stroller and was prompted to right a review of it on Walmart.com. I was pretty honest about my review, but the truth of the matter is – there are companies out there that pay people to post great reviews of their products.
A while back, Facebook changed its algorithm so that top news stories would appear at the top of user’s pages. This has an advantage as a user because you can see the most popular stories first in your feed. It comes in handy when someone you know gets engaged, has a baby, starts a new job – or other life changing event. Since it is at the top of your feed, you are sure to see it and not miss it among the hundreds of other posts.
The disadvantage to this is that we need to rely on what Facebook thinks is a top story. I find their algorithm rather annoying. I don’t want to see a post from two days ago, just because other people are liking it and commenting on it. Also – just because some of my friends are liking a story on pink elephants, who’s to say I care anything about pink elephants? Perhaps I like purple elephants better. Furthermore, the algorithms can be tricked.
One article that I found very interesting and funny on the topic is – Tricking Facebook’s Algorithm (http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/08/tricking-facebooks-algorithm/375801/. )
No comments:
Post a Comment