iTunes store and gamed reviews

There has been a lot said in the press recently about bad reviews – the NYT recently brought to the attention of Google that one company decormyeyes was actively encouraging bad reviews to gain search engine rankings.

Other sites have been accused of allowing poor reviews which may have a negative effect on their businesses and in fact tripadvisor is being sued over it.

Meanwhile over on the iTunes store they’ve had problems in the past and removed apps from a developer found to be abusing the ratings and review system. Still though it persists.

Does anyone else think it’s suspicious that Union17 manages to review one app ***** (5 star) and NOW TOTALLY RELIABLE! PERFECT!! and writing lots of overly positive (and also in caps with exclamation points) yet at the same time manages to review seven other similar apps all * (1 star) managing to slate them, promote the first app and it’s supposed features int he review and all within a couple of days…
Then there’s Type25 who clearly does work for the developer as any of their apps reviewed are great and any others are poor.

I reckon another developer seems to be trying to game the iTunes store review system which really means you can’t trust the reviews on there until they find a way of preventing developers reviewing on the site.

okay well I am back

okay well I am back in London now after the two 8 hour flights yesterday. Melatonin is a fantastic invention. Woke up sleepy [thanks scally for that call] and took Jack out for a walk – he was very happy to see me. I was very happy to see him. Pets they are fab no expectations and they are always happy to see you!
Well I arrived back to the flat like a sauna Elric had managed to leave the heating on manually full for the past 3 weeks so all my plants are a little dead or brown around the edges. The food that I left him in the Fridge before I left was unfortunately still in the fridge [and growing some new life forms] and anything that had been used up was lying around empty. So no coffee or washing powder then :o(
Luckily Andrew had brought me home with Jack and got an indian takeaway so at least we had something to eat!

I am not sure if I am missing Singapore [the company especially] or Sydney [the place and the atmosphere] more. All I know is it has strengthened my resolve to leave the UK for a while. I am going to be asking for that job in Oz with AOL and see what happens. It would only be an eight hour flight to my brother in Singapore then too. Unfortunately Naz will have moved to NY by then – not to worry I’ll be likely visiting Ny more frequently now that hotel expenses have vanished I do like wandering around manhattan. Not sure if I could live there though it’sa ll a bit too hectic like London. Sydney had a much more relaxed pace. Yes I know I was on holiday but you know what I mean.
Met up with Naz a couple more times before I left Singapore and he met the in laws he joined us for dinner on Thursday night. So all in all it was a very relaxing extra couple of days and I’m so glad I did not try and do all the trip in one day. Yesterday was bad enough. We sat and discussed last night how it was like flying to the states and sitting in the airport for a couple of hours and then flying home again . And it felt like it too. The first trip Singapore to Bahrain was made bearable by meeting a lovely boy Mahmoud from Beirut. He had the most piercing blue eyes and was generally a really nice – but a bit str8.
The trip from Bahrain to London had the little screens and games and films so that was alright. Shame I had managed to buy more in Bahrain Duty Free!

So I had better go and do some washing and buy some food and act generally depressed :o(