James Surowiecki's book The Wisdom of Crowds demonstrated how collective intelligence can outperform the best informed individuals. Online consumers seem to agree. In survey after survey, like this new one from Deloitte, web users have expressed how much they value other consumers' opinions.
Yet as user reviews become more ubiquitous online, it's easy to get lost in all the wisdom of the crowd.
For example, take a look at the user reviews of digital SLR cameras at Amazon.com. It's not until you get to the 76th search result that any camera gets a user rating less than four of five stars. You could spend days trying to make sense of all the user generated camera love. This isn't an isolated case. According to a study from user review specialist Bazaarvoice, 88% of all reviews written by UK consumers and 81% of all US reviews were rated as positive – given four or five stars of five. That positivity is a big part of why user reviews are so effective for ecommerce businesses. For users however, they may be declining in value.
I think web users are likely to increasingly seek out crowds of experts to get the best possible information. Expert review aggregator sites like Motormouths and Metacritic will thrive as users look for ways to quickly get information that helps them narrow their choices.
Gamers are (as usual) ahead of the curve. The Wall Street Journal reported how a high or low Metacritic score for a new game can influence sales – and even the stock price of videogame publishers.
Consumers have always had best-seller lists and box office takings to guide them to what's popular. To find out what's great, the collective wisdom of experts will be increasingly valuable.