{"id":99149,"date":"2026-11-13T06:24:05","date_gmt":"2026-11-12T22:24:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=99149"},"modified":"2026-11-13T06:24:05","modified_gmt":"2026-11-12T22:24:05","slug":"commentary-have-online-reviews-killed-the-joy-of-discovery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=99149","title":{"rendered":"Commentary: Have online reviews killed the joy of discovery?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<h2><span lang=\"EN-GB\">WHEN FIVE STARS ARE FOR SALE<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span lang=\"EN-GB\">Fake reviews are more than a nuisance. They can mislead consumers, distort ratings and put honest businesses at a disadvantage. It is annoying when an eatery falls short of expectations because of artificially inflated ratings, but far more troubling when fake reviews influence weightier decisions, such as which doctor or lawyer to engage.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span lang=\"EN-GB\">There&#8217;s also the murkier practice of offering freebies or discounts in exchange for favourable reviews. These testimonials may come from genuine customers, but how impartial can their praise be when there&#8217;s something to be gained from awarding five stars?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span lang=\"EN-GB\">The existence of an entire market for manufactured approval reveals just how reliant we have become on the opinions of others. In fact, the competition watchdog found that one fake review provider even offered a calculator allowing businesses to work out how many five-star reviews they need to achieve their desired Google rating.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span lang=\"EN-GB\">Ironically, the more reliant we are on the \u201cwisdom of the crowd\u201d to make informed decisions, the greater the incentive for businesses to manipulate online reviews, undermining the very system we turn to for guidance.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span lang=\"EN-GB\">When I do consult online reviews these days, I sometimes find the negative ones more revealing than glowing praise. The trick is to look for recurring complaints. For example, a one-off gripe about slow service may not bother me, but repeated mentions of hidden charges certainly would.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<center><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.channelnewsasia.com\/commentary\/business-buy-five-star-review-restaurant-salon-6502911\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article At Source <\/a><br \/>\n<center\/><\/p>\n<p><center><script>\n  atOptions = {\n    'key' : 'ab8cc34fbebd96e6c135978b4baca540',\n    'format' : 'iframe',\n    'height' : 90,\n    'width' : 728,\n    'params' : {}\n  };\n<\/script><br \/>\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highrevenueformat.com\/ab8cc34fbebd96e6c135978b4baca540\/invoke.js\"><\/script><\/center><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>WHEN FIVE STARS ARE FOR SALE Fake reviews are more than a nuisance. They can mislead consumers, distort ratings and put honest businesses at a&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1864,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1126,5986,8974,3268,500,4426],"class_list":["post-99149","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-buzz-news-sg-global","tag-commentary","tag-discovery","tag-joy","tag-killed","tag-online","tag-reviews","wpcat-2-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99149","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=99149"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99149\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=99149"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=99149"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=99149"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}