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Interesting point - what if your reviews are shared between your friends? Our findings are that people can be honest in a community where they know their recomm

Interesting point - what if your reviews are shared between your friends? Our findings are that people can be honest in a community where they know their recommendations will mostly help their friends find great places.

kliao 15y ago
i sometimes don't trust my friends' recommendations. what if my friends and I don't share the same tastes? or, maybe my friend recommended a sushi place, but it was the first time she tried sushi...
jdminhbg 15y ago
The problem with that is I don't need a digital way to manage word-of-mouth from my friends; I can handle that mentally. I need a way to find out about places my friends haven't been to.
- akitchell 15y ago
  Interesting & strong point. We're looking to solve that problem as well -- its a darn big challenge!
jerf 15y ago
Take the number of your friends. Subtract the "lurker" ratio, which most studies show to be pretty high. Now subtract the ones who have never been to the place you want to see the review of. Now subtract the ones who went there but didn't review it (because do you leave reviews of every single business you use? if so, where do you find the time to do anything else?). The mode of the result will be 0. If your friends are homogeneous and outgoing, you might achieve the critical mass necessary to have more than just one review on a handful of local businesses. On Yelp, I have many local places with 0 reviews period, let alone by people I know. Broader comment: Tying identities to reviews won't do squat. If I tell you I'm Bob Thurmond, put up a photo of an older white guy, and exercise even a modicum of identity management, who's going to be able to tell otherwise?
- ramchip 15y ago
  That, and often I need recommendations when I'm not in my usual place, like when traveling. The odds that my friends would 1) use the service and 2) review a place I'm interested in are very low. If I want a recommendation from my coffee aficionado friend... I'll just ask him.

kliao 15y ago

i sometimes don't trust my friends' recommendations. what if my friends and I don't share the same tastes? or, maybe my friend recommended a sushi place, but it was the first time she tried sushi...

jdminhbg 15y ago

The problem with that is I don't need a digital way to manage word-of-mouth from my friends; I can handle that mentally. I need a way to find out about places my friends haven't been to.

akitchell 15y ago
Interesting & strong point. We're looking to solve that problem as well -- its a darn big challenge!

jerf 15y ago

Take the number of your friends. Subtract the "lurker" ratio, which most studies show to be pretty high. Now subtract the ones who have never been to the place you want to see the review of. Now subtract the ones who went there but didn't review it (because do you leave reviews of every single business you use? if so, where do you find the time to do anything else?). The mode of the result will be 0. If your friends are homogeneous and outgoing, you might achieve the critical mass necessary to have more than just one review on a handful of local businesses. On Yelp, I have many local places with 0 reviews period, let alone by people I know. Broader comment: Tying identities to reviews won't do squat. If I tell you I'm Bob Thurmond, put up a photo of an older white guy, and exercise even a modicum of identity management, who's going to be able to tell otherwise?

ramchip 15y ago
That, and often I need recommendations when I'm not in my usual place, like when traveling. The odds that my friends would 1) use the service and 2) review a place I'm interested in are very low. If I want a recommendation from my coffee aficionado friend... I'll just ask him.