Websites like word of mouth (womow) for rating/reviewing services

kcyw on 28/01/2011 - 00:27
Last edited 28/01/2011 - 00:41

I was wondering if there are more websites rating/reviewing services like

http://www.womow.com.au

I am specifically looking for medical services, but automobile, tradesmen, and other professional services would be really useful too.

I found this one http://www.ratemds.com/ for doctors but not as many to choose from as I hoped.

And just wondering how people find the authenticity/credibility of the reviews/comments on websites like these. I looked up my local doctor on womow and the comments sound right.

Website like this would be good for the wiki too. I looked but couldn't find anything. Perhaps a new section could be added?

General Discussion

Comments

  • [Deactivated] on 28/01/2011 - 02:51

    Given issues we have here with sockpuppeting etc, the problem with all online ratings is who made the rating, and why.

    Opinions mean nothing if you dont know this. Like hey who am I really. My avatar portrays a short assed evil guy, when in reality I might be like my old avatar a tall cuddly moose….

  • llama on 28/01/2011 - 07:50
    +3

    The thing about those sites is that nobody except a sockpuppet would know to go there and review something.

    You've got to question the motives of someone who would say to themselves… "gee, today I will search for a product rating website, so let's Google then find the one with the most unusual name like …. 'womow'… Yeah, that'll do - and then I'll type up a review for every appliance I own and service that I have ever used. And tommorrow, I'll find another equally obscure website, and add reviews into that one".

    • scotty on 29/01/2011 - 00:01

      Sockpuppeting has always been a challenge here, and it is not always easy to solve unfortunately. However when the community has grown, bad reviews often overshadow fake good reviews posted by sockpuppets.

  • leiiv on 01/02/2011 - 11:59
    +1

    How about expanding ozbargain to include reviews?

  • slowmo on 01/02/2011 - 12:24

    there's no smoke w/o fire… no matter how sockpuppeting occurs (for good/bad reviews), it's quite easy to pick out initially, until it gets really complex and political (ie. tripadvisor)… where you have dedicated online teams to spread news like a 'propaganda'

    • scotty on 01/02/2011 - 16:10

      Yeah… Maybe building a reviewing feature here at OzBargain with "ring of trust" concept? Like PGP.

      For example, a review only has weight if it is reviewed by those you trusted, or trusted by those you trusted. A new reviewer would not be trusted by any. However this model would only help those who have been using the site for a while (and have built his/her own ring of trust), and does not benefit new users who landed here via Google just to find some reviews…

  • leiiv on 02/02/2011 - 12:21
    +1

    There is another problems with review:
    People tend to write review if they experienced a bad or an exceptional service/product. The rest of us are just too lazy or have nothing to write. And then we all know that nothing/nobody is perfect. It only takes 1 defective service/product and 99 standard services/products delivered to reduce a company's reputation (that is, 1 bad review and 99 no review).

    • Blah Blah on 02/02/2011 - 20:47

      Bad luck for the company having a review based on their bad service/product. Someone paid for a service/product, the person purchasing expected a working product/reasonable service, if not provided good on them for posting a bad review somewhere. As for say the other 99 good products/services by the same company, who cares, that's what the purchaser paid for in the first place. If it exceptional I might write a good review but even probably wouldn't.

    • slowmo on 02/02/2011 - 22:26

      thats where you can find out if the service is actually dodgy based on the reviews against it… normally when i trudge review sites, i am just looking for any possibilities that I could be ripped off… if it's an exceptional service, i consider that as a 'bonus' …

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