Camille, eHow sounds terribly like Harper Collins' site Authonomy, where the rankings got so corrupt they've just changed the entire system. (People are now openly conjecturing how to game the new star ratings.)
Re Amazon reviews, surely it's quite easy to tell the genuinely enthusiastic reviews written by strangers? They sound different. On my novel,
Remix, I've got thirteen reviews, all but one five star. Four are written by people who know me from writers's sites, the rest by strangers, and I think anyone can guess which are which.
I find it a bit depressing when the suggestion is made that you shouldn't trust reviews if they are too full of praise. Maybe, just maybe, it's a good book?