[not_your_vase]

Have been wondering since a long time if there are still any real reviews on the internet, that weren't paid for by someone, something that could be trusted. I really can't remember when was the last review that turned out to be true.

But while I do believe that there is a real hole in the market there, I am not sure how big that market is, if there is really a demand for real reviews - both products and services (and whatever else can be reviewed)

[daft_pink]

I think that generally if you ignore the 5 star review and then look for a staircase pattern of 4, 3, 2 and 1 star reviews on yelp or google then that place is generally awesome. If most reviews are either 5 stars or 1 stars then the place probably sucks. It generally indicates tha legit users are giving a bad review and the company is trying to mask this by recruiting or paying for 5 star reviews. I find the histogram shape to be far more useful than the review average.

Basically businesses only pay for 5 star reviews and 1 star reviews are generally a really bad indicator so the quantity of reviewing in all other categories is the most useful and the size and scope of 1 star review in relation to non fake reviews are really useful indicators

[raincom]

Yes, 99 percent of reviews are paid directly or indirectly. Mattress reviews are the worst offenders, as they are paid by mattress companies.

[ozlikethewizard]

tbf i live in a city in the UK, so YMMV, but after exhausting personal contacts I find asking in the subreddit for that city has only produced stellar results so far