11 ms·

Show HN: Amazon is littered with fake reviews, see through them – Freshdill.com

11 points by system_error 8y ago

system_error 8y ago
The review quality on Amazon has gone down significantly over the last few years, especially in the electronics category. I needed a way to search for products that allowed me to quickly identify real vs fake products. I couldn't find anyone providing this search service so I built it myself. Any and all Feedback would be appreciated.
chillacy 8y ago
Have you considered making it a browser extension? It would be good to maintain the amazon interface I'm used to. On another note I heard from folks who have tried starting companies like this that it's hard to change habits (hard to get people to stop going to amazon and start going to your site, even if you add a bunch of extra useful info).
- system_error 8y ago
  I initially looked into making a browser extension but my reading of the Amazon Product Search API led me to believe it would be a violation of their terms of use. I have seen some similar extensions using their API since then which has made me reconsider.
  - chillacy 8y ago
    Another possibility: if you scrape the data from the page directly, amazon would never know.
luxstyle 8y ago
So does the check mark next to the item mean it is legit and the others have fake reviews or the opposite?
- system_error 8y ago
  The check mark means that the price is the lowest in the last 90 days and the reviews are reliable. Good question, I should make that more clear.
darkstar999 8y ago
Seems like this is just low effort affiliate link spam. The actual "fake review" filtering is done by fakespot.com, and price tracking is done by thetracktor.com, so you are just adding an affiliate code?
- system_error 8y ago
  We are not trying to hide the fact that we're using fakespot review data (or tracktor pricing data for that matter). We are providing the ability to search for products rather than cutting and pasting URLs between browser tabs into multiple different websites. We are trying to provide a more cohesive user experience than we have found elsewhere.

11 points by system_error 8y ago

The review quality on Amazon has gone down significantly over the last few years, especially in the electronics category. I needed a way to search for products that allowed me to quickly identify real vs fake products. I couldn't find anyone providing this search service so I built it myself. Any and all Feedback would be appreciated.

chillacy 8y ago

Have you considered making it a browser extension? It would be good to maintain the amazon interface I'm used to. On another note I heard from folks who have tried starting companies like this that it's hard to change habits (hard to get people to stop going to amazon and start going to your site, even if you add a bunch of extra useful info).

system_error 8y ago
I initially looked into making a browser extension but my reading of the Amazon Product Search API led me to believe it would be a violation of their terms of use. I have seen some similar extensions using their API since then which has made me reconsider.
- chillacy 8y ago
  Another possibility: if you scrape the data from the page directly, amazon would never know.

luxstyle 8y ago

So does the check mark next to the item mean it is legit and the others have fake reviews or the opposite?

system_error 8y ago
The check mark means that the price is the lowest in the last 90 days and the reviews are reliable. Good question, I should make that more clear.

darkstar999 8y ago

Seems like this is just low effort affiliate link spam. The actual "fake review" filtering is done by fakespot.com, and price tracking is done by thetracktor.com, so you are just adding an affiliate code?

system_error 8y ago
We are not trying to hide the fact that we're using fakespot review data (or tracktor pricing data for that matter). We are providing the ability to search for products rather than cutting and pasting URLs between browser tabs into multiple different websites. We are trying to provide a more cohesive user experience than we have found elsewhere.