Σχόλια – «μαϊμού» και απάτες στο Διαδίκτυο

Άρχισαν και στην Ελλάδα οι καταγγελίες για ορισμένα blogs, portals, κλπ, σχετικά με την επισκεψιμότητα που εμφανίζουν… Το πρόβλημα δεν είναι ελληνικό, αλλά διεθνές, και έχει σχέση με τα εργαλεία μέτρησης, αλλά και τις μεγάλες δυνατότητες της τεχνολογίας…

Ωστόσο, το ψέμα και οι απάτες έχουν κοντά ποδάρια… Πάντως, για να μην είμαστε άδικοι με τον ψηφιακό κόσμο, να θυμίσουμε ότι πριν ένα χρόνο είχε αποκαλυφθεί στις ΗΠΑ μια μεγάλη απάτη: εμφανιζόταν ότι οι συνδρομές πολύ γνωστών περιοδικών (Time, Business Week, αν θυμάμαι καλά) ήταν πολύ περισσότερες από τις πραγματικές…

Στο πεδίο του Internet, απλώς, -αφού δεν υπάρχουν στοιχειώδεις πιστοποιήσεις- λόγω του αναρχικού/χαοτικού χαρακτήρα του Δικτύου, «μαϊμουδιές» μπορεί να κάνει και ο τελευταίος blogger που θέλει να εμφανίσει «χτυπήματα», συνδέσμους που κάνουν άλλα blogs στο δικό του κλπ…

Παρακάτω, μπορείτε να δείτε μερικά στοιχεία που προέρχονται από την Edelman, γύρω από τα «κόλπα» που γίνονται στο Διαδίκτυο, ιδίως, δε για τις online κριτικές.

Online Reviews and Ethics
On the heels of the 2009 Edelman Trust Barometer, the Friday5 topic this week goes back to ethics in communication, specifically related to online reviews. What happens when companies intentionally create deceptive messages online? This practice has been around for years and has sprouted a variety of pejorative terms, including sockpuppeting and astroturfing. In many cases, the culprits are caught and called out by attentive online citizens. Here are a few examples of companies that were called out for going astray on the ethics of online reviews.

1. From an article in the Financial Times, an employee at Belkin offered $0.65 per positive review on Amazon. A blogger revealed the scam, which led to an apology from the organization's president, but not before the story was picked up across the web.

2. Another example from the FT article comes from Shelfari, a social networking site for people who love books. After complaints about the site's design and usability, more than 50 positive comments appeared around the web from a user named "schaufferwaffer." The commenter was quickly revealed to be a Shelfari employee; the company blamed an intern who knew no better and promised it would never happen again.

3. Yelp, a site for users to post reviews about local businesses, was called out this week for allegedly removing negative reviews for those companies that agreed pay to advertise with the site, while those who refused to advertise often saw positive reviews replaced by negative reviews. Yelp is being blamed for commissioning its employees to write these reviews, both positive and negative, based on a company's willingness to pay.

4. On February 19, a blogger called out another online review site for letting advertising dollars influence reviews. This time it was CityPages.com, a site based in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The blogger noticed that some reviews had been copied and pasted directly from company websites, and soon discovered that the reviews were coming from City Pages staff who were writing undercover positive reviews for local companies who had given advertising dollars to the site.

5. In general, it seems that fake comments and reviews planted by companies have been taking their toll on consumer trust. Check out some of the conversations happening across the web right now related to fake reviews.