Amazon has the largest inventory. AirBnb, the best selection of accommodation. Google Maps, the most detailed information on places of interest.
But there’s an often forgotten signal that’s critical to the success of all these marketplaces: the review.
The review is a heuristic that helps us shortcut our consideration process. We simply don’t have the time to analyse every option, so we rely on the wisdom and experience of the crowd to make decisions about which products to buy, homes to rent, and places to go.
Collected over many years, these vast libraries of detailed, crowd-sourced reviews make these marketplaces insanely helpful.
Although, the media headlines focus on their points of difference, it’s the forgotten signal that underpins their success.