評論
打印
Business: Reviews on Amazon Five-star fakes
商業：亞馬遜上的評論，五星假好評
The evolving fight against sham reviews.
打擊虛假評論進行中。
“I will post awesome review on your amazon product,” bess98 declared on Fiverr, a website where individuals sell freelance services for $5 or more.
“我會對您在亞馬遜出售的產品給予好評。”Fiverr網站用戶bess98如是說，該網站用戶出售這樣的自由職業服務，要價為五美元或更多。
On October 16th Amazon charged that bess98 and more than 1,000 others were illegally hawking customer reviews.
10月16日，亞馬遜網站起訴包括bess98在內的一千多名用戶的評論為推銷行為的非法評論。
The case comes just six months after Amazon sued the operator of four sites peddling similar stuff, including the subtly named buyamazonreviews. com.
六個月以前，亞馬遜起訴了四家有類似推銷行為的運營者，包括其中一家網址非常微妙的buyamazonreviews.com(意為購買亞馬遜好評)。
Like Amazon, other websites have fought fakes with lawsuits, carefully honed algorithms and even sting operations—Yelp, a popular review site, has had undercover staff answer ads from firms seeking glowing write-ups.
同亞馬遜一樣，其他許多網站也以起訴、過濾評論和安排人員打入內部等方式抵制虛假評論。比如，頗受歡迎的點評網站Yelp就有臥底人員應對那些尋找虛假好評的入駐商家。
Yet the problem persists.
但問題仍然存在。
For as long as there have been online reviews, there have been fakes.
因為只有有網上評論的存在，就會有虛假評論。
The motivation is clear: for example, one extra star on a restaurant's Yelp rating boosts revenue by 5-9%, according to Michael Luca of Harvard Business School.
動機顯而易見：例如，據哈佛商學院的麥克·盧卡統計，Yelp點評網上的商家每多一顆星，其營業額變會增加5%到9%。
Mr Luca and Georgios Zervas of Boston University have shown that restaurants seeking fake acclaim are likely to be independent—online reviews matter more to them than to chains with established reputations.
盧卡先生和波士頓大學的喬治·澤瓦斯發現尋求虛假評論的飯店一般為個體商戶——同已經建立起自己聲譽的連鎖店比，前者更需要網上好評。
So some businesses ask friends to post raves, seek reviewers-for-hire and offer customers discounts in exchange for praise.
這些個體商戶要么請朋友發表溢美之詞，要么找付費的評論者，或是給提供好評的客戶折扣。
For websites that claim to be an impartial resource, such practices are troubling.
對于旨在提供中肯評價的網站，這些行為會損害網站的宗旨。
“While small in number,” Amazon contends in its new suit, “these reviews can significantly undermine the trust that consumers and the vast majority of sellers and manufacturers place in Amazon.”
亞馬遜在最近這次起訴案中辯論道，“盡管目前這類評論為數不多，但這確實會損害顧客和眾多賣家及制造商給予亞馬遜的信任。”
The problem is particularly irksome for sites dedicated to offering reviews, such as Yelpand TripAdvisor.
對于專門提供點評的網站，如Yelp和貓途鷹，問題更為棘手。
Amazon sells everything from books to lawnmowers; Yelp's main offerings are its 83m reviews.
畢竟亞馬遜還賣各種產品，從書本到割草機，應有盡有；而Yelp的主要業務便是多達8300萬的點評。
“If consumers can't rely on the content,” says Vince Sollitto of Yelp, “then the service is of no value.”
Yelp發言人Vince Sollitto說，“如果顧客沒法信賴點評內容，那么我們的服務便沒有意義。”
So websites have tried to fight fakes.
所以各網站對虛假評論進行了打擊。
Algorithms comb reviews for suspicious wording.
運用一定的計算機算法來篩除具有可疑的措辭的評論。
Expedia allows hotel recommendations only by those who have paid for a room there.
智游網（Expedia）只許付款入住了酒店的顧客推薦酒店。
Amazon tags a review as “verified” if the writer has indeed bought the product.
亞馬遜把真正買了商品的顧客評論打上“真實可信”的標簽。
Presumably such reviews are more reliable, though bess98 is one of many who claim to be able to game Amazon's system.
按理來說，這些評論更加可靠，盡管諸如bess98這樣的網友聲稱能躲過亞馬遜的法眼。
Yelp may have the most aggressive strategy.
Yelp采取了可能最為激烈的打擊方法。
An algorithm removes a whopping 30% of posts from Yelp's list of “recommended” reviews, though consumers can still see the suspicious ones if they like.
他們采用計算機算法篩除掉網站中多達30%的好評，盡管顧客稍加注意仍能看到疑是虛假的點評。
Businesses that try to weasel their way to a higher rating (paying off grumpy clients, for instance) have their Yelp pages branded with a red warning.
為了得到更高評分而搞小動作的商家（如收買打算抱怨的顧客），他們的Yelp頁面都被打上了紅色的警告字樣。
Despite all this, some false acclaim and critiques inevitably slip past firms' defences.
盡管如此，仍有虛假的好評或者差評成為漏網之魚。
For websites, fake reviews will remain a stubborn headache.
對于點評網站，虛假評論仍是難以解決的頑疾。
Meanwhile businesses are finding new ways to boost their reputations online.
與此同時，商家則在尋找各種新方法在網絡上提高聲譽。
Social bots—lines of code that pose as real accounts—can build buzz on social-media sites like Twitter and Facebook.
代碼寫成的社交機器人可以模仿真人進行評論，在諸如Twitter和Facebook等社交網站上制造輿論。
For the average consumer, it may become ever harder to distinguish real praise from puff.
對普通消費者來說，從宣傳廣告中辨別評論的真實性越來越難。
譯文屬Brenda
