review aggregator

{{Short description|System that collects reviews of products and services}}

{{Refimprove|date=November 2018}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2020}}

A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews and ratings of products and services, such as films, books, video games, music, software, hardware, or cars. This system then stores the reviews to be used for supporting a website where users can view the reviews, sells information to third parties about consumer tendencies, and creates databases for companies to learn about their actual and potential customers. The system enables users to easily compare many different reviews of the same work. Many of these systems calculate an approximate average assessment, usually based on assigning a numeric value to each review related to its degree of positive rating of the work.{{fact|date=June 2024}}

Review aggregation sites have begun to have economic effects on the companies that create or manufacture items under review, especially in certain categories such as electronic games, which are expensive to purchase. Some companies have tied royalty payment rates and employee bonuses to aggregate scores, and stock prices have been seen to reflect ratings, as related to potential sales.{{cite news|url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB119024844874433247|title=High Scores Matter To Game Makers, Too|access-date=15 February 2008|author=Nick Wingfield|date=20 September 2007|work=The Wall Street Journal}}{{cite news|url=https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/movies/liam-lacey/the-studios-wake-up-to-the-power-of-rotten-tomatoes/article2142069/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110826142834/http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/movies/liam-lacey/the-studios-wake-up-to-the-power-of-rotten-tomatoes/article2142069/|archive-date=26 August 2011|title=The studios wake up to the power of Rotten Tomatoes|access-date=24 September 2011|author=Liam Lacey|date=26 August 2011|work=The Globe and Mail}} It is widely accepted in the literature that there is a strong correlation between sales and aggregated scores.{{Cite journal|title=On the Validity of Metacritic in Assessing Game Value|date=2013|journal=Eludamos. Journal for Computer Game Culture|volume=7|issue=1|pages=101–127|last1=Greenwood-Ericksen|first1=Adams|last2=Poorman|first2=Scott R.|last3=Papp|first3=Roy|doi=10.7557/23.6150 |s2cid=59385017 |doi-access=free}}

Due to the influence, manufacturers are often interested in measuring these reviews for their own products. This is often done using a business-facing product review aggregator.{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EzckDwAAQBAJ&q=business-facing%2520product%2520review%2520aggregator&pg=PA2021-IA91 |title=e-Pedia: Captain America: Civil War: Captain America: Civil War is a 2016 American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics character Captain America, produced by Marvel Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures |date=2017-02-11 |publisher=e-artnow |isbn=978-80-268-6088-4 |language=en}} In the film industry, according to Reuters, big studios pay attention to aggregators but "they don't always like to assign much importance to them".{{cite web|url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-moviereviewsites/movie-review-aggregators-popular-but-do-they-matter-idUSTRE81G1U420120217|title=Movie review aggregators popular, but do they matter?|date=17 February 2012|publisher=Reuters|access-date=8 January 2019}} Movie Review Intelligence was a review aggregator website, which collated and analyzed movie reviews.{{cite news|last=Williams|first=Joe|title=While 3-d falls flat, arthouse movies soar|url=http://www.stltoday.com/entertainment/movies/joe-williams/article_29d2f3f4-a45e-11df-8c44-00127992bc8b.html|accessdate=20 August 2010|newspaper=St. Louis Post-Dispatch|date=2010-08-10}}