aggregate-review-examples

The Problem

There are various services that provide aggregate ratings and reviews on the Web. How should this information be presented in microformat form? hReview is oriented towards individual reviews with ratings; can it also be used for presenting data from aggregate reviews?

Participants

• John Panzer
• Kavi Goel

Real-World Examples

Links to public web pages, either popular or insightful

Amazon

• http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001FA1NFA/
• Aggregation of user reviews for a product. Up to 10 reviews per page
• Includes 1-5 stars average rating and the total number of reviews
• Also includes number of reviews for each score (1-5)

Bizrate

• Aggregation of user reviews for a product. Up to 10 reviews per page
• Includes 1-5 stars average rating and the total number of reviews

Citysearch

• http://siliconvalley.citysearch.com/profile/11636582/mountain_view_ca/vive_sol.html
• Shows 1-5 stars average rating and the total number of reviews on the "business info" page
• On the "reviews" page, it also includes the number of reviews for each score (1-5) and some themes from the reviews (i.e. "Prompt seating", "Romantic", "Good for groups")

CNet Reviews

• http://reviews.cnet.com/car-gps-navigation/garmin-nuvi-880/4505-3430_7-32815498.html
• Shows both editors rating (1-5 stars as well as a word describing the rating, i.e. "Excellent") and the average user rating (1-5 stars) and total number of user reviews
• Only shows editor's review and 3 user reviews on first page for a product.
• Clicking through shows 5 reviews per page.

Download.com

• http://www.download.com/Ad-Aware-2008/3000-8022_4-10045910.html
• Shows both editors rating (1-5 stars) and the average user rating (1-5 stars) and total number of votes
• 5 user reviews shown per page

Rotten Tomatoes

• http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/quantum_of_solace/
• Shows percentage of positive reviews from users (in this case, users = movie critics) and number of reviews
• An average rating (between 1 and 10) is also shown, but this data is de-emphasized on the Rotten Tomatoes movies pages.

Yelp

• http://www.yelp.com/biz/vive-sol-restaurant-mountain-view
• Shows 1-5 stars average rating and the total number of reviews
• Also includes number of reviews for each score (1-5)
• The site highlights recurring themes from reviews (i.e. "The food is delicious - love the chicken mole.") and the number of reviews where such comments were made.

Coded examples

(Note: examples may contain additional markup for positioning and presentation purposes to simulate live production markup)

aggregate reviews embedded in hproduct block

<div class="hproduct">
	<ol class="clearfloat" id="breadcrumbs">
		<li><a href="http://www.yoursite.com">Home</a></li>
		<li class="category"><a href="http://www.yoursite.com/computers/">Computers</a></li>
		<li class="category"><a href="http://www.yoursite.com/computers/networking/">Networking</a></li>
		<li class="category"><a href="http://www.yoursite.com/computers/networking/print-servers">Print Servers</a></li>
	</ol>
	<h1 class="n">NETGEAR 802.11g Wireless USB Print Server with 4-Port Switch</h1>
	<div id="topbox">
	<div class="rightcol">
		<img src="http://images.yoursite.com/images/products/7250/7250707_rb.jpg" alt="Image of NETGEAR WGPS606" class="photo" />
	</div>
	<div class="leftcol">
		<div class="infomain">
			<ul>
				<li>
					<strong>Brand: </strong><span class="brand">NETGEAR</span>
				</li>
				<li>
					<strong>Model: </strong><span class="model">WGPS606</span>
				</li>
				<li class="identifier">
					<span class="type">SKU: </span><span class="value">7250707</span>
				</li>
			</ul>
			<div class="haggregatereview">
				<div class="hreview">
					<span class="fn"><a href="http://images.yoursite.com/path/to/product" class="url"><img src="http://images.yoursite.com/images/misc/ratings_star_3_5.gif" alt="3.5 out of 5 stars"/></a></span><span class="rating">4.7</span> / <span class="best">5</span> (<span class="num">13</span> reviews)</div>
				</div>
			</div>
			<p class="description">
				Share a USB printer with others on your network; up to 54 Mbps; 2 USB ports; wireless Ethernet bridge mode with 4-port switch
			</p>
			<p>
				<span class="availability online">Available online</span>. <span class="shipping">Shipping: Usually leaves our warehouse in 1 business day. <span class="money">Estimated shipping cost: <abbr class="currency" title="USD" lang="en">$</abbr><span class="amount">6.99</span>.</span></span>
	
			</p>
			<p>
				<span class="availability instore">Available in our stores</span>. Store Pickup: Available at most stores
			</p>
			<p>
				<span class="availability specialorder">Not available for special order</span>.
			</p>
		</div>
		<div class="infoside">
			<span class="price regular"><span class="money"><strong>Price: </strong><abbr class="currency" title="USD" lang="en">$</abbr><span class="amount">99.99</span></span></span>
			<div>
				<a href="http://images.yoursite.com/path/to/buy/product" class="buy"><img src="http://images.yoursite.com/images/btn_add_to_cart.gif" alt="buy this product" /></a>
			</div>
		</div>
	</div>
</div>

Existing Practices

• Summary of common patterns discovered
• Other attempts to solve The Problem

Proposal

• Early drafts
• Link to related pages as they become available
• I think that this page from email discussion actually is a non-example: http://webcenter.polls.aol.com/poll?view=69043&pollId=69096 ; it's actually aggregate rankings with numerical weightings, which might lead to an interesting hRanking microformat but I think is out of bounds for an 'aggregate review' discussion.
  • -brainstorming
  • - proposal
  • -microformat

See Also

• Aggregate review: formats - brainstorming
• review-examples for examples of individual reviews
• hReview
• Normative references for tags used