Re:Email from Jeff Bezos to employees
by PaulDavisThe1st on Tuesday February 02, 2021 @05:10PM
(#26007596)
Could you point me to another merchant who offered customer-readable customer reviews before Amazon? I'm not saying there isn't one, just that when we were implementing them, I was unaware of any precedents ...
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Re:Email from Jeff Bezos to employees
by GraffitiTim on Tuesday February 02, 2021 @06:08PM
(#26008327)
My memory is there were some stores that had "customer reviews" before Amazon, but they were all screened by the company before being published. So every product would only have 5 star reviews.
When Amazon came out with real reviews, it seemed crazy to many at the time -- like why would you want to share bad things about your products on your own website? I thought it was awesome.
Re:Email from Jeff Bezos to employees
by PaulDavisThe1st on Tuesday February 02, 2021 @07:01PM
(#26008836)
OK, so now this hinges on the idea that such stores had an online e-commerce-y presence before amzn. Again, I'm not ruling it out, but I don't remember us having any real models for this.
Amazon's customer review system was created as a barrier to entry for competitors, as much as anything else.
Re:Email from Jeff Bezos to employees
by GraffitiTim on Wednesday February 03, 2021 @01:41AM
(#26011197)
Your memory would be more credible than mine certainly!
Perhaps I'm remembering my/people's reaction to first seeing reviews on Amazon.
I'm not quite sure about the timeline of which was first, but didn't ebay have heavy emphasis on seller/buyer reviews early on?