Product Reviews: Part 1
Since submitting my first book review in 1999, the Amazon review process has been an interesting one. At this point in time, Amazon shows that I have 85 product reviews to my name. Apparently, this total number is based on the reviews currently available via the Amazon web site; I have written several additional reviews that I have since deleted due in part to my decision to no longer review works of fiction.
In September 2008, I wrote my first review for the Amazon Vine program. Currently, Amazon provides the following definition of this program: "Amazon Vine™ is a program that enables a select group of Amazon customers to post opinions about new and pre-release items to help their fellow customers make educated purchase decisions. Customers are invited to become Amazon Vine™ Voices based on the trust they have earned in the Amazon community for writing accurate and insightful reviews. Amazon provides Amazon Vine™ members with free copies of products that have been submitted to the program by vendors. Amazon does not influence the opinions of Amazon Vine™ members, nor do we modify or edit their reviews."
Almost exactly one year prior to my first Amazon Vine submission, I had written a review for Smart Enough Systems: How to Deliver Competitive Advantage by Automating Hidden Decisions at the request of one of the authors, James Taylor, Vice President of Product Marketing at Fair Isaac (now FICO). In his email to me, he mentioned his favorable opinion of my earlier May 2007 review of Competing on Analytics: The New Science of Winning, by Thomas H. Davenport and Jeanne G. Harris, a book in a roughly similar genre.
The review process for this book was an interesting one: the author noticing my review, the author contacting me to review his book, my acceptance of his request, the author contacting his publisher to send me a copy of the book, the author following-up to determine whether I had received the book, the author contacting his publisher a second time to send me a copy of the book after I had indicated that I had not yet received it, my receiving of two copies of the book with a request by the author to share a copy with a colleague, and my submitting of the review.
The process involved in reviewing books prior to my acceptance to review for Amazon Vine, however, had been different, in part because the limited book selection lists provided by the program have been chosen for me, and I might not otherwise have chosen any of these books, although I do greatly limit myself in what I choose to review because a nontrivial amount of time is involved. Amazon Vine claims the book selection lists are based on individual purchase and review history, but based on Amazon Vine reviews I have read by other individuals, the algorithm to decide which books are made available for review seems to be a bit awry.
The responses I received from Amazon visitors for Click: What Millions of People Are Doing Online and Why it Matters, my first Amazon Vine review, prompted me to issue the following response in the form of a comment for my review: "After my review submission for this book, I was reminded of three things. The first is that the number of stars reviewers assign to a book is very relative. In other words, one reviewer might think that 3 stars is a very low grade, while it is simply indicating that the book is middle-of-the-road. The second is that because such a high proportion of reviewers for this book are Amazon Vine reviewers (individuals who receive advance copies of books from Amazon), the subject matter might not necessarily be one in which the reviewer is interested, thus painting an inaccurate picture of the book. The third is that more often than not, reviews of books that were assigned a low rating are seen by visitors to Amazon as being less helpful than those that assigned a high rating. Amazon visitors need to realize that all reviews need to be considered when determining whether to purchase a book, unless it is fairly obvious that the reviewer either did not read the book or the reviewer intentionally made an attempt to bash the book because they did not agree with the premise of the book."
In my opinion, my "helpful vote" percentage, which has apparently decreased from 90% to 88%, is a direct result of my decision to review for Amazon Vine, although the Amazon reformulation of its "Classic Reviewer Rank" algorithm into its "New Reviewer Rank" to determine overall reviewer rank at the time boosted me from around 8500 to around 3000. Apparently, the original algorithm was highly based on total "helpful votes", whereas the new algorithm places importance on how recently reviews have been written as well as review quality, although it is uncertain how an algorithm can determine review quality. It is already apparent that review quality cannot be based on "helpful votes".