I've made this point before about search engine ranking. Most of the popularity signals used by search engines can be, and are, faked. I have two papers on this:
Google's merge of data from Google Maps into the main search engine results created a whole new branch of local SEO spam.
The fundamental problem is that the creation of fake online identities is cheap and easy. This can be partially fixed by taking a tough line on identity, but that's hard for services which are either big or have only a casual connection with their users. Facebook ran into the gay agenda enforcing a real names policy.
The mobile guys can at least make people buy a phone to fake an identity. (A phone number is not enough; you can rent fake phone numbers. See "http://www.attlines.com) An app that phones home with too much user information, though, is hard to fake cheaply. Yelp can tell if your phone has been to the place you're rating.
No you don't. Evaluate the statement independently of who is making it. Just because someone calls themselves "feminist" while making a claim doesn't mean you should invalidate their claim.
"Social is bad for search, and search is bad for social" (2012), or how Google's use of social signals backfired, badly. http://www.sitetruth.com/doc/socialisbadforsearch09.pdf
How Google's use of social signals backfired, badly.
"'Places' spam - the new front in the spam wars", or how Google's use of "local" information backfired. "http://www.sitetruth.com/doc/placesspam10.pdf" (2010)
Google's merge of data from Google Maps into the main search engine results created a whole new branch of local SEO spam.
The fundamental problem is that the creation of fake online identities is cheap and easy. This can be partially fixed by taking a tough line on identity, but that's hard for services which are either big or have only a casual connection with their users. Facebook ran into the gay agenda enforcing a real names policy.
The mobile guys can at least make people buy a phone to fake an identity. (A phone number is not enough; you can rent fake phone numbers. See "http://www.attlines.com) An app that phones home with too much user information, though, is hard to fake cheaply. Yelp can tell if your phone has been to the place you're rating.