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Product ReviewsMore Video Product Reviews, ExpoTV.comBusiness Week blog mentions video product reviews. Apparently there is an entire site devoted to video reviews, ExpoTV.com. I guess there is, or will be, a video site for every niche. (what is next? a product-review podcast company?) Kind of odd that this is a standalone site, as you cannot progress through the entire buying process via video. Or can you? I'd think they'd at least hook up with an API like Shopping.com, offer consumers more of an end-to-end experience. On the plus side, they also have transcripts of the reviews. On the down side, this only highlights the one-dimensionality of some reviews. (i.e. visual = good, text = weak) Alexa ranking is better than nothing, but far from Youtubian. + + + I've also seen video product reviews sneak on to sites like Ciao, but without much publicity.
More Video Product Reviews, ExpoTV.com
Lessons Learned from Video Product ReviewsUpdate: this post attracted one of the best comments ever added to this blog. Nice! + + + Inspired by ShopWiki, I decided to try and make a video product review. My beagle has been wanting to make video product reviews for some time... she must have been wondering why it took so long. But I'm a relative latecomer to camcorders, and have only dabbled with Adobe Premiere, so I had no idea what to expect. How long would it take? Would I even be able to do it? I had no idea, but it was a chance for video-editing experience, so why not. The subject: Busy Buddy Twist-N-Treat. (I am not sure if there are any dogs yet on ShopWiki, but who else is qualified to review a dog toy?) In this case, with the unpredictability, the review cannot be done in one take. First, the video must be edited for time constraints. Next, the audio must be planned around the edited video. I probably spent a couple hours trying to produce 3 minutes of video. Even if it was just me talking about a tech gadget, still cannot image doing everything in one take. It would take more extensive planning and at least a good outline. Still, if you are not used to doing audio-video, knowing what you want to do, and actually doing it, are two very different things. Allowances must be made for outtakes and outright bloopers. But enough about production. Even if everything went flawlessly (ha!) there is still the issue of the end-user experience. After watching several of the other video product reviews, I do not think it makes sense to try and make video reviews stand alone. They are terribly inefficient. Reviewers can only cram so much info in several minutes of video. Readers cannot easily skim to save time, which limits the amount of reviews they can consume, and thus the amount of unique perspectives they are able to consider. I think, the ideal scenario may be to make the text reviews & video reviews complementary. Use video only for the parts that are uniquely suited to video, and link to it from a more complete text-based review. No need to cram a full review into video. Dunno... can you see yourself watching video product reviews in the near future? Why or why not? And if yes, what types of products do you think are best suited to the medium? Inquiring minds want to know... + + + As for my little "vReview"... By the time it was completed, I figured it probably did not conform to the guidelines of ShopWiki, so I opted to host it on Google Video and promote my wife's first website, which might come alive after her Master's is done. Lucy Beagle reviews Busy Buddy Twist 'n' Tread from Premier Pet. p.s. - anyone reading this have beagles? p.p.s. - dogster is the product of genius.
Lessons Learned from Video Product Reviews
Mini-Contest: Product with Most User ReviewsThis might be the only post I can sneak in this week. T-storms knocked out power for a lot of people last night. Things are a bit off: we got our power back, but helping friends who did not. You never know what will be working in different parts of town, including the gas stations. Q: What is the only thing worse than paying over $3 per gallon for gas? Anyway, long ago, I posted about products with 1000+ reviews, which included a look at the Stars Wars Trilogy at Amazon.com, currently up to 2156 reviews. I'm curious to find some other good examples of review overload. Starting with the number of reviews mentioned above as a baseline, can anyone find more reviews of one product, at one site? (For the purpose of analyzing reviews, I suppose the definition of a product could fairly broad.) The winner will win... well, if anyone can cite some cool examples, and if their website is not objectionable, I'll see if I can give them a link and some fame, or something. + + + Update for feed-readers: Greg Haslam chipped in with a high score -- 1st Harry Potter at Amazon.com -- 5,229 reviews. I had to go beyond standard products, into entertainment, to find at item with 118,554 reviews: Not sure how Greg wants to use his grand prize of link+fame, so for now I'll throw in a link to this very cool new feature, which can be used to find product reviews, among other things.
Mini-Contest: Product with Most User Reviews
Product Review Free-For-AllI 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
Decrapifying User-Generated ContentEarlier, Greg Linden brought up the issue of filtering junk "UGC". Now, Ian McAllister of MSN gives a more detailed overview of filtering techniques. Speaking of bad words, comparison engines might do well to flag words like N*geria (1) (2) for manual review...
Decrapifying User-Generated Content
Product Review Mini-Series: NumbersReview Statistics Yesterday, we examined the features of various product review formats. How do the various user-review resources stack up against each other? I do not have a definitive answer, but I did gather some data while researching cameras (Canon SD500, Canon SD400, Canon SD300, Canon S2 IS, Canon G6, Canon S70). Admittedly, with a small sample size and one product category, the results might not be ultra-representative... this is just an exploratory experiment to see if anything interesting turns up. + + + First, can we learn anything by looking at the distribution of product ratings?
All of these cameras were highly rated, so there is not as much difference as there could be. If I had it to do all over again, I would have tried to find products with divided opinions. The only notable difference here is the relatively high amount of negative ratings at Amazon.com. Diversity of opinions is valuable, so at first glance this appears to be a plus for Amazon. However, there might be some differences in the reviews hosted by retailers and reviews hosted by independent sources. While some would say there is plenty of incentive for retailers to have uniformly positive reviews, in some ways, opposite forces are at work at Amazon.com. I saw several instances where a reviewer's negativity was directed at the retailer, for issues ranging from pricing to shipping, and not the actual product. + + + How about the average length of reviews at these sources? Any differences?
Wow. It is hard not to notice the eye-popping length of reviews at Shopping.com. What this means is that if a shopper is looking for as much in-depth information as possible, it is impossible to ignore Shopping.com. To varying degrees, the can't-ignore-dynamic applies to all of the major review sources. In other areas, such as product attribution, it is possible for a site to have comprehensive coverage, relative to the other sites, so a shopper only needs to visit one site. But there is no way for one site to acquire a monopoly on unique perspectives. Thus, for any given product, any of these sites could prove to be indespensible. + + + more later...
Product Review Mini-Series: Numbers
Product Review Mini-Series: FeaturesReview Features Below is a line-by-line comparison of the features of product review formats at the major shopping engines.
Most sites are using extra sections such a Pro and Con, which brings me joy. But these are of limited value, at least for products with many reviews, if there is not any kind of alternate "summary skimming" navigation scheme, IMHO. Only a few sites support follow-up comments, which would seem like a logical early step in fostering community. + + +
All of these sites include an overall rating, and all of them except for one (CNET) base it on a 1 to 5 scale. Nearly half of the sites have some kind of sub-ratings. Most of them, such as quality and value, are generic. More interesting, in my opinion, are the category-specific ratings at Shopping.com, such as Battery Life. Better yet, would be if category-specific ratings could be sliced and diced like any other product attribute... + + +
I cannot understand why any site would not have the option to sort a search by the highest-rated products. Why not? Sorting the reviews within the product-view is not a big deal, unless there are many reviews, in which case it is handy. + + +
The time spent with product is an interesting qualifier. Perhaps other user-information such as product expertise level could also be useful? [i.e. novice, intermediate, expert] + + + more later...
Product Review Mini-Series: Features
Product Review Mini-SeriesI was going to put together a week's worth of posts about product reviews, but no sense in trying to get too cute. the revised posting schedule: Wednesday: Features... a line-by-line look at features of reviews at the major shopping engines. Thursday: Statistics... crunching the numbers on a small sample of reviews from several sites. Friday: Pot Luck... anything is possible on Fridays, I don't know yet.
Product Review Mini-Series
HehI was planning to introduce a cool new idea in my series of posts on product reviews, until I saw this post on Geeking with Greg. Mining the Peanut Gallery:Opinion Extraction and Semantic Classification of Product Reviews (.PDF) Figure 2 on Page 8 is so similar to one of the visuals I've been carrying around in my head since at least May 25 that it is... surreal. Even more surprising is the fact the paper was published in 2003 (!) Granted, I would have only had the idea, and would have left the rest for somone more technical to figure out. :-) Ah well, I'm sure there is more than one way to solve this problem...
Heh
Should all User Ratings be Weighted Equally?We've had "Was this review helpful?" functionality for some time now. Yet, as far as I can tell, no matter how helpful or unhelpful the review, the ratings are weighted exactly the same. In other words, if there are two reviews, a 5-start review that is 100/100 helpful, and a 1-star review that is 0/100 helpful, they will everage out to 3 stars. Hmmm. I suppose an argument could be made that, unlike reviews, all ratings are equally valid, because although there is Wisdom in Crowds, not everyone in the crowd is equally gifted at written communication. Then again, maybe all the "Was this review helpful?" votes are another form of crowd-wisdom that could be given consideration, in the form of weigthed ratings? Ehhh... just thinking out loud today...
Should all User Ratings be Weighted Equally?
What If... Popular Products had 1000+ User Reviews?I am in the mood to ask questions. No answers. Not yet. Let your imagination go wherever it wants to go... Okay, to the topic, what if popular products had 1000+ user reviews? I picked that number because it seemed like a bit of a stretch. In many areas, popular products are doing well to get dozens of reviews. Yet, I am reminded of the saying that goes, "we all experience the future at different times" or something like that. In other words, the Star Wars Trilogy at Amazon.com already has 1,985 reviews. Are we getting all we can out of these reviews? + + + Currently, much of the functionality revolves around sort. Here are the options for sorting reviews at Amazon.com: * Newest First What other opportunities exist within sort? What opportunities exist outside of sort?
What If... Popular Products had 1000+ User Reviews?
Sub-Ratings and Sub-ReviewsAwhile back, I posted about hReview, a proposed review microformat, and it got me re-thinking about user reviews, one of the true joys of online shopping. One problem is that reviews are scattered all over the Web. But even within websites, we are only scratching the surface of what is possible with user reviews. Along those lines, due to the impending weekend, I will only scratch the surface of what is possible in this post. :-) Here are two existing features related to product reviews that deserve more consideration: (note: ask ten people the name of these features, and you might get ten answers...) Sub-RatingsSub-ratings are any rating that is not an overall rating. Often, when it comes to product reviews, sub-ratings are generic in nature, such as value or quality. But they need not be. For example, a laptop can be rated on attributes such as display or keyboard or battery life. (see: notebook computers at Circuit City) Sub-rating information is often aggregated at the product level, but rarely makes its way to the category level. In other words, you can see this information after you are already viewing a product, but you cannot use this information to get from the category level to the product level. If a product category only has one type of rating (overall), it can be used as a sort option. But what if a product has several types of sub-ratings? In that case, perhaps sub-ratings could act as product attributes, the way digital cameras have attributes like megapixels and optical zoom, and be manipulated in the same ways. Sub-ReviewsSub-reviews are short summaries that have more structure than the main body of a review. By far, the most common of these is the summary. A bit less common, but oh so useful, are pro and con. When used on a page of review summaries, Pro and Con can offer a quick, well-rounded product overview. Also, they can help determine which reviews to read in full, by giving us a glimpse of a reviewer's balance, or lack thereof. I would love to see more adoption of Pro and Con. And I am more than a little surprised they are not included in a microformat such as hReview, quite frankly. oops, time is up, the weekend beckons, more later...
Sub-Ratings and Sub-Reviews
hReview: The Review MicroformatPotentially big news in the world of product reviews, the hReview microformat. What is hReview? (What is a Microformat?)hReview, introduced late last month as a draft specification, outlines a standard review format, useful for distribution and aggregation (format, examples). As stated in the scope, " Reviews consistently share several common fields. Where possible hReview has been based on this minimal common subset." Who Is Behind hReview?Authors come from Technorati, Yahoo, Microsoft, America Online, CommerceNet Labs and Six Apart. Emphasis on companies with large amounts of user-created content:
Note the lack of pure-play comparison shopping companies... User-Review DynamicsInterestingly, the authors of hReview are primarily from companies that are not in the business of product reviews, or companies that are relatively weak in this area. The hReview format allows these companies to form a powerful partnership with other people who are not in the business of product reviews, their users. Together, voila!, they are in the business of product reviews. Disruptive technology at its finest. But wait... why would people make their reviews freely available in such a format? The reality is that most people already contribute their reviews for free. Whether it is to Amazon.com, a review site, or a comparison shopping engine, people contribute their reviews to the places where: Again, we go back to the different motivations of people who are not in the business of product reviews. Unlike the existing aggregators of product reviews, who must carefully consider the tradeoff of more traffic vs. losing their place in the aggregation food chain, the individual "aggregatees" have no such concerns. Any way you slice it, the user wins. As a shopper, they get the following: As a publisher, they get the following: Opportunities, ThreatsWhat is the potential long-term impact of hReview on comparison shopping engines (CSEs)? Shopping Engines vs. Shopping Communities - shopping aggregators will need to build a richer relationship with their increasingly empowered userbase, to be worthy of user-submitted reviews. Otherwise, they risk losing the critical mass needed to maintain the read/write cycle of user reviews. Spidering CSEs vs Non-Spidering CSEs - microformats such as hReview could deepen the divide between comparison shopping sites that have access to search spidering technology, and the have nots. Spider-enabled aggregators should be more comprehensive, by blending a primary database of in-house reviews, and a secondary database of reviews from around the Web. The Long Road AheadOf course, a common format is only the first step in aggregating reviews. Adoption by reviewers is the next step. At first, hReviews could be "all dressed up with no place to go" with no immediate user benefit. However, the supply side of the equation should be solved relatively easily via integration by a few large content management systems (CMSs). Aggregation is the hard part. At first, when adoption is limited to a small group of tech-savvy, well-intentioned parties, aggregation will appear easy. Then, as commercial interests grow stronger, the dynamics will change. The long-term solutions will require industrial-strength reputation management. hReview or no hReview, Technorati or no Technorati, a review microformat seems logically inevitable in the long term, so now is a good time to re-think the role of aggregators in a microformatted Web. (authority, community...) Word Around The WebNiall Kennedy, "Want to get involved? Great! Check out the hReview specification, take a look at the examples, and build your own implementations for your favorite publishing tools and sites." Om Malik, "PS: I wonder when hReview, the micro-format for reviews like this will be implemented in WordPress and other popular CMS systems like TypePad." Jonas Luster, "You can bet your hiney there’ll be a WordPress and Drupal plugin as soon as I find the time :)" Greg Yardley, "...any microcontent format worth its chops needs to include a clear specification of the rights granted by the original owner, and if these rights are for sale, specifies the amount and means of payment - or at least a pointer to that information." Tantek Çelik, "Feedback is strongly encouraged." P.S.I think the hidden strength of this format could be the "tags" section.
hReview: The Review Microformat
Is comparison shopping bad for Amazon.com?That is the question being asked by the Internet Stock Blog. Answer: yes, but not necessarily for the reason mentioned in this post. I could be wrong, but my feeling is that many (most?) of the people who are super-concerned with price differences have already found a favorite price comparison engine or two. Similar to the fear among advertisers that sooner or later everyone would get ad-blocking software. It could happen, but only if it came enabled by default on new computers (i.e. Norton). Growth rates cannot be extrapolated from the early adopters, if the rest of the market might not know enough or care enough to go down the same path. The mass market will need more hand-holding. For price comparison, this could happen if Froogle and Yahoo! Shopping get increased exposure on their parent search engines. Okay, now let's talk about the real threat. Background: I talk to a lot of people about their online shopping experiences. From the tech elite at industry conferences to Joe and Jane Surfer in middle America, I'm always asking some variation of the same question, "what is your process to search online for fuzzy blue widgets?" Not surprisingly, a decent percent of people start their search for books, music, videos, electronics, and other common consumer goods at Amazon.com. But not once has anyone cited lowest-price as their primary motivation. What keeps them coming back to Amazon? Reviews. Amazon.com is an irresistible "honeypot" to online shoppers because they have a critical mass of trusted reviews. In the words of Joe Shopper, "Where am I most likely to find enough good reviews on my product (any product) to get comfortable with my decision?" In the past, Amazon.com’s main competitor in this area was Epinions, now Shopping.com. These days, there is a new threat that casts a long shadow: Froogle. Last year, Google put the web on notice of a new philosophical direction when it unveiled aggregated product reviews. I was more than a little surprised at the ho-hum response to this development, when everyone is so gaga over Google. Maybe it is because Froogle still needs an extreme usability makeover. Nevertheless, this is a few tweaks away from being ground-breaking stuff. If Froogle goes on to become a shopping comparison powerhouse, we'll be able to look back and identify merchant reviews & product reviews as the turning point. Will this be the year that Google finally throws some resources at Froogle? p.s. - Internet Stock Blog - Ticker: SHOP is one for the bookmarks.
Is comparison shopping bad for Amazon.com?
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