Internet Entrepreneurs Blog

These days even e-commerce websites are getting into the data ranching game by soliciting user reviews of their products. Sites like Amazon.com have amassed millions of reviews on everything from books to bicycle tires. Amazon even allows users to upload their own product shots while sites like VintageVantage post photos of actual customers sporting VintageVantage t-shirts.

For the most part customers find these reviews to be helpful in making purchasing decisions but retailers have an incentive to suppress negative reviews while promoting more positive ones. In fact review management is very common on most e-commerce websites and this is really a breach of trust between review submitter and review aggregator. If product reviewers or potential customers recognize review management this can be very damaging to the image of the retailer in the minds of its most passionate customers.

Photos, on the other hand, are a great way to grow content on any e-commerce website with little risk of alienating users. Unfortunately photos are not easily indexed by search engines so this type of content, while useful, generally does not generate increased traffic to an online store.

In this age of user-generated content the lines between online catalogs and data ranching are being blurred all the time. But does it make sense for retailers to get into the publishing business? Stay tuned for our analysis of consumer review websites as data ranches!

Unless you live under a rock, you’ve probably heard of and even used Wikipedia to find information about a subject. Wikipedia is a tremendous resource and a great example of using collective intelligence and effort to build a truly useful data ranch. The name Wikipedia alludes to the fact that the website is built on a software package called a ‘wiki,’ Hawaiian for ‘fast.’

Wikis are great at encouraging user participation. Rather than simply viewing static information like on a blog, users are encouraged to help write new articles and enhance those that already exist. Wikipedia in particular has seen its data ranch grow entirely through the contributions of its readers.

Wikis are also extremely flexible in that they allow users to quickly and freely create and link online articles. This flexibility even allows other users to update articles with additions and deletions, in theory keeping articles entirely up to date through the collective intelligence of many individuals.

The flexibility of wikis can also be a drawback in some cases. Because users are allowed to edit existing articles, there is the chance that data can be updated with malicious or inaccurate content. Readers of wikis usually understand this and therefore view them through a skeptical lens. Wiki administrators must constantly monitor content to ensure that important information is not altered or removed by unscrupulous users.

Another drawback to current wiki software is that the resulting web of content can be difficult to navigate. A wiki is well suited to something like an encyclopedia since users are generally searching for information on a particular subject and can enter a query to find what they need. On the other hand if a user were looking for a list of the best restaurants within 10 miles of his or her house a wiki would not be helpful unless someone (who lived nearby) already created that list in the wiki. And even if that list did exist, how could anyone trust it since it is difficult to see how many users have contributed to that article?

Wikis work well in controlled environments (such as intranets) and for specific online applications but for many data ranching needs, they are simply not the right choice.

After “seeding” your website with relevant, useful information it is important to continue your data growth through continuous feeding. In this context, feeding means three things:

1. Give users the chance to feed your information for you. If you have a blog, turn on comments. If your website sells books, give your customers a way to add their reviews. Wikis in particular make feeding particularly easy since virtually anyone can add to articles. Let your website users do some of the watering and feeding for you and your data ranch will grow by leaps and bounds.

2. Periodically review your data for accuracy and relevance. Sometimes data may begin to wither due to the passage of time. If it’s out of date, update it or add relevant caveats.

3. Find new ways to use your data. Your data can often times fuel itself by adding just a little interactivity to your website. Allowing users to create lists, for example, organizes your data and generates additional pages in the search engines. Multiply your existing data by presenting it in new and useful ways.