I am a big fan of online rating and review sites. These sites seem to represent the core idea of the Internet: people sharing information with other people.
There has been a lot of growth in this market (see my previous post for a few examples), and there are now review sites for almost any type of product or service. One of the most visible sites in the past couple of years has been Angie's List, a membership-based site where people share information about local contractors and service providers. I joined Angie's List and explored it a bit, but never actually used it.
I was surprised therefore when I got a letter from the company telling me that my free trial had ended, and in order to maintain my account I would need to pay an annual fee of $53. Wow!
Bear in mind that the ratings and reviews on Angie's List, just as on other review websites, are posted by users. So why should I pay $53 a year to access reviews written by other people like myself? Paid membership business models were tried on the Internet a decade ago, and for the most part (thankfully) failed.
In the case of Angie's List, I think the high membership fee will be self-defeating. Most people will not be willing to pay such a high annual fee, so the pool of reviewers will quickly shrink, and people will turn to the many free rating and review sites.
As usual, I will end with a few links:
There's a great Wikipedia article about review sites, with a little history, and some pros and cons.
There is a good list of review sites on Wikidweb.com
The Ratingz Network operates a growing family of review sites with over a dozen so far.
RatingParadise lets you rate the review sites
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
Wednesday, March 14, 2007
Online Review Sites Help Families
People have long turned to friends and family for recommendations when looking for services, but as our lives change, we may have fewer people to turn to. Many people live in relative isolation, in busy urban areas, without the benefits of extended families or social groups.
An organization called the National Conference on Citizenship has actually documented the decline of our communities. Their annual report, America’s Civic Health Index, can be downloaded from their website at http://www.ncoc.net/
Yet just as our community connections are diminishing, we are finding more information – and connections – on the Internet. A recent study shows that more than 2/3 of survey respondents used Internet searches to find information on local services.
People also turn to rating and review sites to find referrals that they would - in the past - have gotten from friends, or to help in choosing service providers.
RateMDs.com is a good example of these increasingly popular sites. At RateMDs, users can post comments and ratings for their doctors and dentists. Others can read these comments when looking for a doctor.
On company, Ratingz Inc, operates a number of websites that families can use to evaluate local businesses. Examples include:
ChildCareRatingz.com
CampRatingz.com
VetRatingz.com
RestaurantRatingz.com
There is a good list of “rating and review” sites from many companies on the Internet directory site WikiDWeb.
The sites are sometimes criticized because they often make no attempt to verify the validity of statements that are posted. Bob Nicholson, VP of Marketing for Ratingz Inc, responds by saying, “It’s true that there are some suspicious reviews on our sites. Good ratings may be posted by the businesses themselves, or bad ratings posted by competitors. But we think our users are pretty good at filtering this type of information. Read the reviews and use them as one source of data when making decisions.”
Perhaps the best way to help others is to post thoughtful reviews – good or bad – of services and businesses you have used. It’s a new kind of community, but it still relies on people to help one another.
An organization called the National Conference on Citizenship has actually documented the decline of our communities. Their annual report, America’s Civic Health Index, can be downloaded from their website at http://www.ncoc.net/
Yet just as our community connections are diminishing, we are finding more information – and connections – on the Internet. A recent study shows that more than 2/3 of survey respondents used Internet searches to find information on local services.
People also turn to rating and review sites to find referrals that they would - in the past - have gotten from friends, or to help in choosing service providers.
RateMDs.com is a good example of these increasingly popular sites. At RateMDs, users can post comments and ratings for their doctors and dentists. Others can read these comments when looking for a doctor.
On company, Ratingz Inc, operates a number of websites that families can use to evaluate local businesses. Examples include:
ChildCareRatingz.com
CampRatingz.com
VetRatingz.com
RestaurantRatingz.com
There is a good list of “rating and review” sites from many companies on the Internet directory site WikiDWeb.
The sites are sometimes criticized because they often make no attempt to verify the validity of statements that are posted. Bob Nicholson, VP of Marketing for Ratingz Inc, responds by saying, “It’s true that there are some suspicious reviews on our sites. Good ratings may be posted by the businesses themselves, or bad ratings posted by competitors. But we think our users are pretty good at filtering this type of information. Read the reviews and use them as one source of data when making decisions.”
Perhaps the best way to help others is to post thoughtful reviews – good or bad – of services and businesses you have used. It’s a new kind of community, but it still relies on people to help one another.
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