Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
Sorry, I'm a little puzzled by how Amazon's ownership of Goodreads will make their reviews less objective. Can you explain, please, how this lack of objectivity will arise?
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Do you remember how Amazon purchased Mobi Pocket Reader? What could possibly go wrong, many people wondered ;-)
If Amazon management decides that they will make 0.5% higher profit by running Goodreads to ground they would not hesitate a fraction of a second.
As for making reviews less objective ... what if, for some reason, they decide what is an acceptable review or a rating, or who is allowed to write a review. What if they decide to make it easier for Amazon customers to write a review o rate a book while at the same moment making it more complicated for people that purchased the book elsewhere?
I personally value Goodreads reviews and ratings more than Amazon ones, because ratings on Amazon site have a direct impact on purchasing books. Reviews on Goodreads aren't tied that directly to sales, so there is, in my opinion, less pressure to have a good review. Also, some people write one star reviews on Amazon for different reasons than the quality of the book (such as bad formatting, DRM, un-availability of an e-book format (windowing), being only available on Amazon and not in their favourite ebook store ...), What if Amazon decides to interlink those, or import all reviews from Amazon to Goodreads. That would in my eyes dilute value of Goodreads reviews (and improve quality of reviews on Amazon).
Just recently Amazon decided that the authors are not permitted to write book reviews on Amazon. What if they persuade Goodreads server gatekeepers to enforce a similar policy?
For a bit of fun just have a look at this book review on Amazon
http://www.amazon.com/review/R2X2TB3...55&store=books
and many more very amusing one-star reviews
http://open.salon.com/blog/jeanette_...r_book_reviews