A new controversial trend brewing up in the online arena is the methods used by certain companies to advertise their product, services or name. The practice is to employee a bunch of people to leave positive comments/reviews about the services, sometimes even creating a false picture that is beneficial to the business. According to a study by BBC there are many companies out there who involve in this strategy to reap benefits and in a way mislead the user to have a false good picture regarding company’s services or products, even if they are not that good or in extreme case totally opposite of what the comments portray.
This is very dangerous as ultimately the end user will lose trust in the internet, as an unbiased means for providing information and knowledge. Just as people lost interest in the biased advertisements and were more keen on gaining insight on any product or service via online channels, now there is a danger that people will no more have any trust on the views expressed by so-thought unbiased users in the comments section of review websites.
Worse is the situation now because companies take this way to market their products very seriously and employ ultra-preemptive means to do the same.
Via: UBC