I read many, many articles, news stories, reports and academic papers about online consumer reviews. A casual Google search will bring up thousands of observations about the greatest consumer motivation to connect with businesses - legitimate, authenticated online...
Reputations are fragile things – they take many years to forge and can be destroyed in a heartbeat. In public life there has been a massive recent shift in the way that certain reputations are perceived and while some villains prosper, others are wiped from history....
Well, if there's anything to make anyone feel a little bit older, it's the sooner than expected arrival of the latest installment of the Rugby World Cup. Without giving away my age, I can vividly remember trooping along to Lancaster Park in Christchurch, to witness...
Recently I was reading an article on business.com that got me thinking about a word that really describes the nature and vitality - as well as the huge importance of online reviews: ethical. I've talked before about trust and transparency and the ways that drives...
My mum is sick, the sort of sick where you don't get better, and for the past few months my family has gone through the best of times and the worst of times. The worst because we are preparing to lose someone who means the world to us, and the best because we have all...
People are strange creatures - some us us miss the point entirely and some of us can never be pleased. A story I read online recently put that into stark effect - in a humorous way as well. A collection of reviews of our country's popular tourist attractions...
Cricket is a marvellous game. It's a contest of skill, patience, aptitude and derring do. It's also sometimes as cruel as all hell. The final of this year's World Cup saw the Kiwis and England play out what well may be one of the most intriguing and dramatic one day...
With every innovation comes those looking to exploit it through manipulation and fraud. Online reviews are no different and the unscrupulous go to great lengths to make money out of the sale and dissemination of fake reviews. In the UK, the Competition and Markets...
Yesterday a Christchurch man was sentenced to 21 months in jail for disseminating the video posted to Facebook by the perpetrator of the March Mosque attacks. His conviction has raised issues and questions about hate speech and free speech and the rights of...
The other day I was driving through a part of Auckland I used to live in, when I first came up from Christchurch, many moons ago. The small assortment of shops remained the same, all apart from one glaring omission - the video store. What had now become yet another...