The veracity of online reviews has been a default criticism for the interweb naysayers who ignore the fact that they are a vital resource for travellers.
But from small business owners getting hammered by disgruntled former employees to hotels employing agencies to provide positive feedback, ways to game the system are many and various.
This has prompted Zomato, the Indian-based restaurant booking site, to massively overhaul its anti-bias algorithm with a view to "remaining a trusted resource for the millions of people who use Zomato every single day."
One might argue that in light of its recent valuation downgrade and a rethink of its operations in a number of major markets, Zomato has more pressing concerns.
The blog post explained how Project Warp will work, without giving away too much. New features within its anti-bias algorithm include a preference to hide biased reviews rather than delete them, with the idea that this will confuse what it calls spammers.
It will profile reviewers more closely in order to prioritise their contributions, while also introducing a way for older reviews to have less weight and presence within the overall rankings.
Clearly, Zomato thinks that if the reviews are perceived as being compromised, site traffic will drop, making it harder to monetize its advertising, booking and food delivery revenue streams.
TripAdvisor has shifted its model and marketing away from being a reviews platform to a pseudo-OTA model via Instant Booking. But without the reviews the site would not have got the scale where it could pivot and monetise.
The "truth" about its reviews was a concern a few years ago. At one point the UK regulator told it to stop using phrases such as “reviews you can trust from real travellers" and "trusted advice from real travellers” because the reviews could not be verified.
TripAdvisor issued a strongly worded statement, changed it taglines and moved on.
The fact of the matter is that despite concerns over bias, people like reviews. They always have done - film reviews, TV travel shows, restaurant critics. Even "genuine" reviews have some sort of bias built in which may or may be relevant to the person making the decision.
The internet makes everyone's opinion available to everyone else and there will be individuals and businesses who take advantage of this openness.
"Folks who try to beat the system will always try and find new ways to do it," Zomato said, "so it’s important that we evolve faster."
Related reading from Tnooz:
Cornell study analyzes TripAdvisor reviews to help hotel managers (March 2016)
TripAdvisor investigation forces Peek to change review system (March 2016)
Online DNA – how TripAdvisor puts reviews under the microscope (May 2015