Mechanical Turk: Reputation Manipulator?

Mechanical turk is really a fascinating service. I must admit, however, that I feel the same way I did years ago when I opened up the Washington Post Help Wanted section and saw "job openings" for protesters (yes, I actually believed protesters protested because of their beliefs, not to earn a pay check).

In this case, a quick scan of Amazon's Mechanical Turk reveals all sorts of "hit" opportunities to add comments, reviews, and other feedback for various entities – websites, photo sites, personal injury lawyers (yep, saw that one), etc…

Once again, it isn't like this stuff wasn't happening already, but online reputation in today's world is too flimsy to be useful. That is why adding "real name" tags like Amazon does is so meaningful.

1 comment for “Mechanical Turk: Reputation Manipulator?

  1. January 25, 2009 at 11:47 am

    Awesome post!! Will read again. A+++++

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