On the Internet, Everyone's a Critic but They're Not Very Critical

October 5, 2009 at 1:10 am PT

The Web can be a mean-spirited place. But when it comes to online reviews, the Internet is a village where the books are strong, YouTube clips are good-looking and the dog food is above average.

One of the Web’s little secrets is that when consumers write online reviews, they tend to leave positive ratings: The average grade for things online is about 4.3 stars out of five.

People like Jonas Luster aim to introduce a little negativity. A private chef, Mr. Luster recently beckoned fellow San Francisco area diners to “quit with the nicey-nicey” in a blog post titled “In Defense of Negative Reviews.” His own average rating on restaurant-review sites is 3.6. He even awarded celebrity chef Alice Waters’s Chez Panisse restaurant a 1-star rating after he felt he had been served an overdone duck.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

Tagged with: Alice Waters, Chez Panisse, consumers, digital, frontpage, Geoffrey A. Fowler, Internet, Jonas Luster, Joseph De Avila, online reviews, ratings, The Wall Street Journal, Web

comments so far. Add yours.

Must-Reads from other Web sites

“You Get on the Internet and Pretty Soon You’re Drunk”: The Orthodox at Citi Field

Sean Patrick Cooper, Contributor, The Awl

Meet the Tireless Entrepreneur Who Squatted at AOL

Daniel Terdiman, Senior Writer, CNET

Mark Zuckerberg’s Unpleasant New Life

Felix Salmon, Finance Blogger, Reuters

Anyone Can Do It. Data Journalism Is the New Punk.

Simon Rogers, News editor, The Guardian

Fashion World Mulls Facebook IPO’s Impact

Rachel Strugatz, Editor, Women’s Wear Daily

The Unabomber’s Pen Pal

Jeffrey R. Young, Senior Editor, Chronicle of Higher Education

About Voices

Along with original content and posts from across the Dow Jones network, this section of AllThingsD includes Must-Reads From Other Web Sites — pieces we’ve read, discussions we’ve followed, stuff we like. Six posts from external sites are included here each weekday, but we only run the headlines. We link to the original sites for the rest. These posts are explicitly labeled, so it’s clear that the content comes from other Web sites, and for clarity’s sake, all outside posts run against a pink background.

We also solicit original full-length posts and accept some unsolicited submissions.

Voices is edited by Beth Callaghan.