Oct 26, 2007
This daily blog has just experienced some of the deliberate manipulation that is often directed at "user-generated" websites
Funny thing happened when I recently ran a post on the publication of a current best-selling book about medical and dental tourism. Almost immediately, eight or nine responses came in from readers, all of them singing the praises of the plastic surgery of a certain Dr. Carlos in Leon, Mexico. On investigation, it appeared that one of Dr. Carlos' former patients had placed phone calls to several other of Dr. Carlos' former patients, urging them to send in responses to this blog praising the merits of Dr. Carlos. And all of them dutifully complied.
Isn't that an apt example of how "user-generated travel recommendations" can be manipulated? And isn't it naïve to assume that this is not happening, massively, on the most popular "user-generated" sites? Although our own site has now taken down the excessive tributes to Dr. Carlos, which stood out like a "sore thumb," how likely is it that the giant user-generated sites can do the same? How in the world can the creators of those sites distinguish between spontaneous, honest opinions and deliberate manipulation?
Write and read comments about this post.
Isn't that an apt example of how "user-generated travel recommendations" can be manipulated? And isn't it naïve to assume that this is not happening, massively, on the most popular "user-generated" sites? Although our own site has now taken down the excessive tributes to Dr. Carlos, which stood out like a "sore thumb," how likely is it that the giant user-generated sites can do the same? How in the world can the creators of those sites distinguish between spontaneous, honest opinions and deliberate manipulation?
Write and read comments about this post.
Labels: websites
Fifty years ago, 
Arthur Frommer is generally acknowledged to be the nation's foremost travel authority. He is the founder of the
