All of us are most likely familiar with product reviews, as debatable as it is whether or not they are useful. However, most of us agree that we dislike reviews that rip our product to shreds, and like the ones which praise them.

I would not, however, recommend the approach apparently taken by one software company. Based on an article by David Pogue in the technology section of the New York Times, a disgruntled customer of Carbonite has uncovered a conspiracy of product review fraud. It would appear that Carbonite employees have posted a number of glowing reviews about their product on Amazon. And do you think that they mentioned the fact that they are employees of Carbonite?

What surprised me most is that the “reviewers” actually used their own names. Why would they do that?

Personally, I like the negative reviews. In my opinion, they are more informative.