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Daily Archives: April 1, 2024

ReviewMeta.com a Must-Have for Amazon Shoppers

“Have you ever purchased a 5-star product on Amazon that turned out to be a complete piece of garbage? Sadly, virtually everyone has had this frustrating experience… and more than once! One of the reasons people love shopping on Amazon is that you can see all of the product ratings and reviews left by other shoppers. In theory, these reviews and ratings help you know which products are good and which are bad. Unfortunately, though, many of the Amazon reviews cannot be trusted. Despite Amazon’s best efforts, Amazon sellers have found all kinds of ways to “game the system” to artificially inflate their products’ ratings (and also to artificially lower their competitors’ ratings). You can read about some of the most common techniques in our blog. The bottom line, though, is that a significant portion of the Amazon reviews and ratings you see are NOT from legitimate, typical shoppers like you. Many of the reviews are biased (from family/friends of the seller), incentivized (the seller gave the reviewer a huge discount or kick-back or even gave them the product for free) or otherwise unnatural. That’s why we created Review Meta. Our mission is to use technology to identify and remove all of these unnatural reviews to give Amazon shoppers a more accurate “Adjusted Rating” that shows what true, unbiased shoppers really think of each product… a rating you can trust! Other Amazon review checker sites/tools assign a letter grade (A, B, C, D or F) to each product. We don’t do that… we think it’s confusing. If you’re looking at a 4.7-star product that was given a “B” or “C” grade, what does that really mean? Is it a good product or not? Presumably, a “B” or “C” means that some of the reviews are fake or unnatural… but what does that say about the legitimate, natural reviews? What if some (or all) of the unnatural reviews were actually posted by the seller’s competitors as a way to sabotage their competition? (This is quite common, by the way, especially with lower-cost items.) A letter grade of “B” or “C” is extremely unclear. Our review analysis is far superior…

  1. We use a wide variety of “tests” to identify reviews that may be unnatural
  2. Depending on those test results, we then either a) remove those reviews completely or b) give those reviews lesser “weight”
  3. We then show you an “Adjusted Rating” for each product (using the same 1.0 – 5.0 star rating Amazon uses), based on only the natural, legitimate reviews

So a 4.7-star product on Amazon might end up with an “Adjusted Rating” of 2.6 or 3.5 or 4.2 or 4.7 (the same) or even 4.9 (yes, higher than the original Amazon rating). In addition to showing you the product’s Adjusted Rating, we also show you the results of each test we’ve run so you can read and analyze the results yourself. Review Meta is a must-have for anyone who regularly shops on Amazon. And to make it as convenient as possible, we’ve developed free phone apps for iPhone and Android as well as free browser extensions for Chrome, Firefox, Safari and Microsoft Edge.”

Back Up and Secure Your Digital Life

Wirecutter: “After spending hundreds of hours researching and testing apps, services, and backup drives and interviewing information security experts, we learned the best ways to counter the threats most people face online every day. (And we fixed holes in our own setups, too.) Here’s where everyone should start to protect themselves from security breaches and… Continue Reading

Healthiest & Unhealthiest Cities in America (2024)

Wallethub: “Location matters when it comes to health. Some places promote wellness by expanding access to nutritious food and recreational facilities. Others strive to keep healthcare costs affordable for everyone or keep parks clean and well-maintained. When a city doesn’t take care of these important issues, it can be hard to keep up good health.… Continue Reading

Freedom of Speech: An Overview

CRS Report – Freedom of Speech: An Overview March 29, 2024 – “The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution protects “the freedom of speech,” but that protection is not absolute. The Free Speech Clause principally constrains government regulation of private speech. Speech restrictions imposed by private entities, and government limits on its own speech, usually… Continue Reading

The Intersection Of Human Creativity And AI

Above the Law: A Legal Renaissance – “AI’s foray into the creative domain, producing works that rival human creations, has sparked a debate on the future of creativity itself. In the labyrinth of modern advancements, artificial intelligence (AI) is reshaping industries and redefining boundaries. Yet, as AI extends its reach into the world of creativity… Continue Reading

7 Free Travel Planning AI and ChatGPT Apps to Get an Instant Itinerary

MakeUseof: ” Layla, Wonderplan, and PLAN by ixigo are AI travel planning apps with customizable itineraries. iplan.ai offers detailed itineraries for popular tourist cities based on interests and budget. Curiosio plans road trips on all continents, while Trip Planner AI helps with activity selection and cost estimation. You can tell a travel agent your preferred… Continue Reading

I tried the new Google. Its answers are worse.

Washington Post [unpaywalled]: “Have you heard about the new Google? They “supercharged” it with artificial intelligence. Somehow, that also made it dumber. With the regular old Google, I can ask, “What’s Mark Zuckerberg’s net worth?” and a reasonable answer pops up: “169.8 billion USD.” Now let’s ask the same question with the “experimental” new version… Continue Reading

The Incognito Mode Myth Has Fully Unraveled

Wired: “If you still hold any notion that Google Chrome’s “Incognito mode” is a good way to protect your privacy online, now’s a good time to stop. Google has agreed to delete “billions of data records” the company collected while users browsed the web using Incognito mode, according to documents filed in federal court in… Continue Reading