Google Zeitgeist, Drones And Amazon Will Be Suing People For Posting Fake Reviews
Every Monday morning at 7:10 am, I am a guest contributor on CHOM 97.7 FM radio broadcasting out of Montreal (home base). It’s not a long segment – about 5 to 10 minutes every week – about everything that is happening in the world of technology and digital media. The good folks at CHOM 97.7 FM are posting these segments weekly to SoundCloud, if you’re interested in hearing more of me blathering away. I’m really excited about this opportunity, because this is the radio station that I grew up on listening to, and it really is a fun treat to be invited to the Mornings Rock with Terry and Heather B. morning show. The segment is called, CTRL ALT Delete with Mitch Joel.
This week we discussed:
Just got back from Phoenix, Arizona where I attended the highly exclusive Google Zeitgeist private event. It’s like TED for Google‘s “best” customers. It should comes as no surprise, that I was exposed to some great technology. I had a drone deliver a smoothie to me (and my clip of it got featured on NBC News, and in other outlets). I went on a virtual reality field trip to the Amazon Jungle (kids will have this in classrooms very soon, and the tech is amazing), plus I watched the evolution of Google’s streetview, which you can now use to virtually climb the vertical rock formation in Yosemite National Park known as El Caption. All fascinating glimpses at the near-future of technology.
The technology can help you… the technology can hurt you. How much trust do you put into consumer reviews? Amazon recently announced that it will be suing over 1000 people for posting fake reviews. Their technology for catching bogus reviews is impressive. Not only are they striking out at companies that offer reviews for books, but they’re looking in places like Fiverr, to see if people are offering up these services, and they’re even scanning social graphs, to see if someone posting a review is a friend or too close to the author to provide a sincere review.