Google Algorithm Discriminates Against Bad Reviews

j_col writes "According to the official Google blog, Google has altered their PageRank algorithm to not give back linking points to bad reviews of websites belonging to online retailers, following the publication of a recent article in the New York Times describing one woman's experiences in being harassed by an online retailer she found via Google. The specific changes to the algorithm are of course a guarded secret. So considering that these changes are already live, how do we know how the algorithm determines a bad review from a good one, and whether or not innocent online retailers will be wrongly punished by having their rankings downgraded?"

Comments

Poor Title: discrimination against badly reviewed

[rsborg]

... not "bad reviews", which would be very anti-consumer.

Instead, the poorly reviewed products and services are going to lose index.

This kind of selective pressure will reward those companies whose services and products garner better reviews.

I just wonder if this will lead to more astroturfed reviews and payola for review-sites like Yelp.

Re:DecorMyEyes is the 4th result on the 2nd page

[mjperson]

That's pretty buried. If I don't see what I'm looking for on the first page of results, I adjust my search terms, I don't click through to the second (of countless) page of results.