Can Citysearch Explain Their Ratings?
Posted by admin, Sun Oct 14 12:06:14 UTC 2007
Have you ever wondered why nearly every bar on Citysearch has a rating of at least 4 stars? We at UrbanDrinks.com have been trying to figure this one out for some time. So, I recently sat down to take a closer look at the rating system applied by our friends at Citysearch. What I found was both baffling and disturbing. For instance, take a look at the rating for Cafe Allora, which is represented as a 4.5 star establishment. Even a cursory glance at the individual reviews tells quite a different story. Out of a total of 9 reviews for this location, a vast majority paint a contradictory picture. In fact, the actual average of these 9 ratings is a 2.7 stars rather than the 4.5 that Citysearch presents to their users. In order to reconcile this discrepancy, I examined the possibility that some users may have greater rating influence than others. Unfortunately, a quick search on Google for: "Citysearch ratings bullshit" yielded no helpful results. To make a long story short, I eventually realized that the actual explanation is much simpler. Instead, Citysearch appears to rate every location with a minimum rating of at least 3.5 stars, regardless of the ratings that are submitted by their users. I don't know about you, but I personally feel like this type of tampering completely misrepresents the true quality of these bars and restaurants. Why should we take the time to rate these places if Citysearch is going to artificially inflate the rating? So, the next time you're searching for a new place to grab dinner or a drink, keep in mind that a rating of 3.5 stars on Citysearch probably means that you're in for an unpleasant experience. Instead, you could simply visit UrbanDrinks.com where the ratings are actually representative of the collective opinion of the community. Next week, I'll take a look to see if businesses that pay to advertise on Citysearch have disproportionately higher ratings than those that do not advertise.