Can You Trust Online Reviews?

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YOU ever have the experience of getting paid and constantly having money for a period of time, but at the end of it having nothing to show for it?

I remember my first summer in college I worked hard all summer on a construction site, during the summer I lived well, but not extravagantly, went for a week holiday in the sun, went to a music festival and a few weekends away. But when the last rays of summer sunshine had dissipated, I was left facing a windy autumn and an austere Winter. As I headed back to college I realised the only real thing I had to show for my summer (besides some awesome memories) was the surfboard I'd bought. Three months of work and this was my only fixed asset. that summer thought me a lesson and something I haven't forgotten. Memories are great but you can't reuse them. So since that time, whenever I come in to a decent bit of money I always make a point of allocating some of it towards fixed assets. It could be anything but generally I go for dvd's, books and domain names. This way at least long after the work is done I can still enjoy it's benefits! So.....To celebrate the (relative) success of my latest money making venture, I decided to pick up a few fixed assets from amazon.com and it got me thinking...

I am a huge fan of amazon.com, one of my favourite things about it is the ability to create a wishlist of items. So for me anytime I come across a book or a dvd I want to check out I'll add it to my wishlist to be viewed at a later date (with amazon's super saver delivery it also makes sense to buy in bulk). I'm constantly adding to this list and whenever I have a bit of money saved up I check these books out to buy them. This is what this post is about. These days before I buy a product I try and find a blog review. I no longer trust a journalist who's played around with something for a week. I want to know how the product performs for the average user and over a long period of time. I am very wary of online reviews particularly on amazon, a disadvantage for me is that the .co.uk site has far less reviews to start with. Fake reviews by companies of their own products have been found on amazon before. So..... do I trust this random name and hope their genuine OR is there a better way....

"Social Media is revolutionizing the world" how often do you hear this? A LOT. Yet as far as I can figure out no one is really harnessing the best benefit of it! That is user reviews. How amazing would it be if you could login with your twitter/facebook account to amazon and leave your review. So when I came along and wanted to figure out if I should buy "direct From Dell" and whether it's any good, I could check out peoples twitter accounts find out if they've the same tastes as me or just tweet them directly and get their input. In one move this will eradicate the uncertainty over online reviews.

Amazons recommendation service is good, people who bought this also bought this. That's fine but it doesn't say people bough this because other people did but having bought it thinks it's totally crap!

The best example I can give is a discussion I had on @twitter with @luketeeling and @clearpreso. We were talking about books to buy. @clearpreso mentioned one called rework I'd never heard of before. I then asked him how it stacked up against 4 hour work week. He said that they were the two books he'd recommend to any entrepreneur and I was sold. But this interaction and comparison of books was vital. If I had gone on amazon and review said "buy this book" I wouldn't have....