I wish I had more time to read this stuff right now, but here are some links for anyone who wants to read ahead:
via: Can You Game Amazon Reviews at paul.kedrosky.com
...a down-n-dirty look at ">Amazon.com user review irregularities at freakonomics.com
...which leads to a scholarly-looking paper on the effect of online book reviews on sales (.PDF) by some folks at yale.edu.
Product Review Free-For-All Posted by Sean O'Rourke on December 23, 2005 at 8:19 AM Archived at Product Reviews