“Kindle Fire is the most successful product we’ve ever launched – it’s the bestselling product across all of Amazon for 11 straight weeks, we’ve already sold millions of units, and we’re building millions more to meet the high demand. In fact, demand is accelerating – Kindle Fire sales increased week over week for each of the past three weeks. People are buying Kindle Fire because it’s a simple, fully-integrated service that makes it easy to do the things they love – watch movies, read books and magazines, listen to music, download apps, play games, and surf the web,” said Dave Limp, Vice President, Amazon Kindle. “Our family of Kindle e-ink readers are close behind Kindle Fire on the Amazon.com bestseller list. Customers continue to report preferring their Kindle e-reader for long-form reading, and in fact we’ve seen many customers buy two Kindles – both a Kindle Fire and a Kindle or Kindle Touch – this holiday season.”

Not even a mention of a pitch of how Fire will only get better after updates to fix acknowledged problems start becoming available.

So what of all that hubbub about the Fire being kind of a drag? A visit over to Amazon’s website reveals that the tablet has an average rating of 4 stars with over 6,000 reviews, which gives some pretty sound reliability to that high rating, and over half of those reviews give it the highest possible rating of 5 stars. Take this with a grain of salt given the source of this info, but even the “most helpful, critical review” still gave the Fire 3 stars.

As you see, an overwhelming amount of people still found that review to be helpful. What’s more is that the author of that review posted an update fifteen days later to say that “a recent software update seems to have fixed several of the above problems” and praises the improved performance. Although the option isn’t available, that update might have pushed the worst constructive rating – a still better-than-decent 3 stars – up higher.

Several technology sources, including this website, PC Mag, The New York Times, All Things D, and Jakob Nielsen (he disliked it so much he gets two links), have all given the Fire mediocre-to-punishing reviews and yet… people can’t seem to gobble up the Kindle Fire fast enough.

Market analysts are predicting that Amazon will sell as many as 6 million Kindle Fires before the end of this year, which would trump the first-quarter debut sales of Apple’s iPad, the tablet by which all tablets are to be compared. There’s also speculation that the Kindle Fire will grab a sizable chunk of the tablet market next year – a market that, until now, has pretty much been the dominion of Apple.

Maybe it’s the professedly easy usability of the Kindle Fire. Maybe it’s the much more affordable price tag. Maybe Amazon’s got some marketing warlocks on their payroll. Or maybe – just maybe – the tech community’s opinion is not representative of what the average person desires in a tablet. Regardless of how this discord can be explained, the Kindle Fire is not Amazon’s “most successful product” they’ve ever launched without some good reason.

If you’re a Kindle Fire user, are you happy with it thus far? Do you find that the tech community is usually spot-on about all things technological, or are you often in disagreement with the technorati?

As big a fan as I am of the snarky comment, however, this one doesn’t ring true for me.  I totally understand how Yelp reviews are very important and I see why Google went after them first, but I am left wondering whether Google ended up far better off than people think, perhaps even better off than if they had bought Yelp.

First, regardless of whether they bought Yelp or Zagat, Google has desperately wanted to have its own reviews to add to its local offerings and now they have them. What’s more, I believe that Zagat reviews have a better brand image than Yelp’s. Whatever advantage Yelp might have had in cachet over Zagat was that Zagat might have seemed old school, but now that Google owns them, you can bet they can overcome any dowdy image that might have dogged them. How long before you see a Zagat app on Android that allows you not only to search for restaurants but to be one of the raters yourself?

Then, there is the question of the price. That same TechCrunch article linked above pegs the price at somewhere below $66 million, because there is no government review needed for acquisitions under that price. Contrast that to the half-billion dollars reportedly rejected by Yelp. Even if you print money the way Google does, having an extra $400+ million to spend on other things can’t hurt. They could buy six more content companies the size of Zagat, for example and still have some change left over.

But people who criticize this deal are missing something else. Zagat is not like Encyclopedia Britannica, because Zagat reviews are not written by one person based on one opinion. Zagat’s has a system that uses hundreds of thousands of surveys to combine for their restaurant ratings. Their system is full of fact checkers and other checks and balances to make sure that the reviews are accurate.

Now, think about that. Suppose you take that systematic process that Zagat has painstakingly worked out over the years and you hand it to Google. Google could very easily start with Zagat reviews and then add a social media ratings and review component that allows Zagat’s to scale their reviews way higher than they do now. And fact checking of reviews is woefully missing from ratings systems today and sorely needed. Even simple things like, “Is the restaurant still open?” or “Is that phone number still accurate?” would be a major improvement to Google’s local offerings, because Google just doesn’t keep data up to date today.

So, stay with me here. On top of what Google bought that everyone knows they bought–Zagat’s restaurant ratings–is it possible that Zagat’s system of collecting and curating ratings could be applied to other businesses, too? All of these rating systems have developed the Yelp way, aggregating many ratings of unknown quality. Google, for all of its love of technology, was the first one to implement a search ranking system based on links, allowing the human element to affect search quality–permanently for the better. It wouldn’t shock me if Google wanted to use humans in a scalable process that improved ratings quality.

But even if this deal is about nothing more than buying a set of restaurant ratings, it is still a very good deal for Google. Expect to see these ratings incorporated into Google forthwith, which is a major improvement for all restaurant searches.

Check out Biznology for more articles by Mike Moran

That research, from computer scientists John W. Byers and Georgios Zervas of Boston University and Michael Mitzenmacher of Harvard, finds that ratings scores on Yelp for businesses running daily deals are 10% lower on average.

Is it worth it to your business to run a Groupon? Let us know.

It’s certainly worth noting that the researchers studied both Groupon and Living Social, which are the two biggest players in the deals space, with Groupon still in the lead (though the gap seems to be narrowing).

“A key selling point of a daily deals site is the promise of beneficial long-term effects for merchants participating in a deal offering,” the report says. “Since discounted deals typically result in a net short-term loss to the merchant as customers redeem the coupons, a merchant is pitched on the expectation that some new customers, initially attracted by the deal, will become repeat customers, providing a long-term gain. Participating merchants should determine that these gains outweigh the costs, which include providing discounts to their existing customer base.”

“We find that the average percentage increase in reviews across all merchants who had received at least one review in the 3 months prior to the Groupon offer is 44%,” it says. “Meanwhile, the average month-over-month growth in number of reviews for deals prior to their Groupon offers is about 5%. Similarly, the average percentage increase in reviews the month after the Groupon offer is 84%. Roughly 20% of merchants in our dataset (461 out of 2,332) had received zero reviews in the 3 months prior to the Groupon offer. Of these, 270 received at least one review within two months after the Groupon offer.”

The researchers also conclude that “Yelp star ratings decline after a Groupon deal.”

“The average drop in ratings is 0.12. This could affect any sorted order produced according to Yelp rankings significantly,” the report says. “Also, Yelp scores are reported and displayed according to discretized half-star increments. Thus, an average drop of 0.12 suggests a significant number of merchants may lose a half-star due to rounding. This could have a potentially important effect on a business; a recent study reports that for independent restaurants a one-star increase in Yelp ratings leads to a 9% increase in revenue. However, the transitory nature of Groupon-driven reviews, in addition to complexities of modeling hidden factors like weighted moving averages, cloud our ability to pinpoint the repetitional ramifications precisely.”

That study by Michael Luca says that its findings suggest that “online consumer reviews substitute for more traditional forms of reputation,” that “consumers do not use all available information and are more responsive to quality changes that are more visible and consumers respond more strongly when a rating contains more information.”

The new study also looked at text, and found that reviews mentioning either “Groupon” or “Coupon” are associated with star ratings that are 10% lower on average than reviews that don’t use these words. The few reviews that used both words were actually 20% lower on average, according to the report.

One of the other findings from the study was that Groupon and deals sites in general are greatly helped by word of mouth (like Facebook “likes”). Kind of a no-brainer, but they have data to back it up. There is much more data to back all of these findings up. Detailed methodology can be found throughout the report, which you can read in its entirety here.

While the findings may turn some businesses off of the Groupon strategy, the news isn’t all bad for Groupon these days. Another report released by Yipit finds that Groupon’s revenue increased by 13% in August, while it gained 2% market share.

Key findings from Yipit’s report include:

• Groupon’s revenue increased 13% from July to $121 million, a $1.5 billion annual run rate.
• LivingSocial’s revenue declined 3% to $45 million, a $540 million annual run rate. August was the second consecutive month that LivingSocial experienced declining revenue in North America.
• The North American Daily Deal industry resumed growth in August. Industry revenue and number of deals offered increased 9% from July.
• Groupon gained market share at the expense of LivingSocial for the second consecutive month. Prior to July, LivingSocial had been gaining market share on Groupon for several months.
• In its first full month, Groupon Getaways outperformed LivingSocial Escapes in the travel deals segment. Groupon Getaways generated 42% more revenue than LivingSocial Escapes and averaged 78% higher revenue per deal.

This comes after a recent report from Experian Hitwise indicating that Groupon’s traffic was down 50% over the summer while LivingSocial’s was up 27%.

Groupon is now testing e-commerce deals in the UK. This could provide a whole new set of opportunities for business. For brick and mortars, it could lead to more online sales. For strictly online businesses, it could simply let them into the club. Getting repeat business from a consumer might be easier to achieve online. If you’re a click away, as opposed to a drive away, a customer might be more inclined to come back, given the right customer experience. ”

It remains to be seen if the e-commerce deals will become a mainstream feature across Groupon’s markets, but it’s definitely something to watch for.

Do you think the benefits outweigh the negatives for businesses offering deals through Groupon or similar services? Tell us what you think.

“Zagat has always been a brand powered by people and passion. Having listened to our users, we’ve re-envisioned Zagat.com,” said Nina Zagat, Co-Founder, Zagat Survey.

“We’ve greatly expanded our free content, Buzz dining blogs and innovative search tools as a result. The free content allows any user to get search results as potent as anywhere else on the web.”

New free features on Zagat include:

*New maps that allow users to search by clicking on a neighborhood, drawing an area on a map, or search by landmark.

*More member recognition by linking to users’ profiles and a new badge system for active members.

*Top lists based on survey results along with roundups compiled by Zagat editiors.

*Links and reviews from third-party sources.

*The ability for users to upload their own photos of restaurants and dishes along with viewing photos submitted by others.

Users can also get news on restaurant openings, closings, trends and more via redesigned Zagat Buzz blogs.

When people use the Zillow Directory to search for a real estate agent in their area, results are sorted by local agents with the highest overall ratings and the largest number of reviews.

Overall ratings are based on recommendations on a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being “very likely” and 1 “very unlikely.” Users can compare agents’ overall ratings, as well as ratings across a number of categories including: process expertise, local knowledge, responsiveness and negotiation skills.

"Zillow was created to help people make smarter real estate decisions, and choosing an agent is one of the most important decisions a buyer or seller can make," said Zillow CEO Spencer Rascoff.

"Agent Reviews are another huge step towards transparency for buyers and sellers. For good agents, it’s a terrific way to stand out from the crowd – the next best thing to a referral. "

The app lets users do the following:

- Search for businesses using a new landscape map/list mode, or flip your iPad into portrait for a full screen view

- Browse business information and reviews

- Write Yelp reviews and share to Twitter and/or Facebook

- Bookmark businesses you want to try or have been meaning to review

- Sign up for a Yelp Account

- Access new photo search results

"Think of all the local businesses you can search for and bookmark via your Yelp iPad app and cross those pesky last minute gifts off your list — not to mention find bars, movie theaters and more around you to avoid the in-laws," says Yelp’s mobile team. 

"And while we’ve been up to a ton this year, like always, we plan to update Yelp for iPad in 2011 with even more features like user profiles, complimenting and more," the team adds. 

Yelp also has apps for BlackBerry, iPhone, Android, and Palm Pre, in addition to a mobile site a m.yelp.com.

The app lets users use location-aware technology to find restaurants, shops, bars, etc. and read reviews for businesses, browse photos, map business locations, and get directions. 

"It’s no secret that mobile has been a huge focus for us this year," says Eric Singley, Yelp’s Director of Consumer and Mobile Products. "With over 2.6 million users in the past month, we’ve been developing like crazy on our iPhone and Android applications, and working hard to bring goodies to our other platforms." 

"Couple that with our focus on rolling out Yelp in new countries and today you have an app made in heaven: the 6th member of the Yelp Mobile family, Windows Phone 7!" adds Singley. 

As of mid-September, Yelp had over 13 million reviews. Businesses are going to want to pay a significant amount of attention to the conversation around their brand on Yelp. Clearly, the already-popular site is continuing to expand (despite its rocky relationship with Google Places). 

Yelp says it will have more features available for Windows Phone app soon. 

What apps do you want to see for Windows Phone 7? Tell us in the comments.

As you may know, Google Place Paages contain links to reviews for businesses, and Mike Blumenthal has discovered an interesting nugget in Google’s Rich Snippets for Local Search FAQ that pertains to this. The tenth question is: "How will Google treat businesses posting testimonials with review mark up on their own site? Will these be treated as a review by the Place Page?"

Google’s answer to this is, "Testimonials will be treated as business reviews on the Place Page."

So, naturally, there are questions about people putting up fake testimonials to make their businesses look better than the real public perception would dictate. 

Blumenthal says, "The implications of this are profound in terms of the impact that these testimonials will have on review count. The impact that they will have on tone of the reviews, sentiment analysis and rank are yet to be seen but if they are handled exactly as current reviews are, this too will be profound."

People have been putting testimonials on their sites for years, and really there’s no way for consumers to tell how real they are, so that’s not really different. However, when these are put on Google’s Place Pages, a place where many, many people will see as they simply search for local business listings, they could be a little more persuasive. 

As Greg Sterling points out at Screenwerk, popular review site Yelp doesn’t include testimonials from companies’ sites. Google recently stopped showing Yelp results on Place Pages. 

ChoiceVendor is based in San Francisco and was founded by CEO Yan-David Erlich and VP of engineering Rama Ranganath.

"Our acquisition of ChoiceVendor is right in line with our top priority to build a world-class team at LinkedIn, says LinkedIn CEO  Jeff Weiner. "We’ve admired the work that Yan-David, Rama, and the talented ChoiceVendor team have done for some time now and are excited to have them join us, especially given their highly relevant work experience."

"Since Yan-David and I worked with members of the LinkedIn team in the past during our time at Google, we’ve kept a sharp eye on the company’s phenomenal growth," said Rama Ranganath, one of ChoiceVendor’s co-founders. "We’re excited about the direction that LinkedIn is headed, particularly in terms of helping its members derive valuable business insights from the site, and are looking forward to joining the team."

LinkedIn currently has over 75 million users. Financial terms of the acquisition weren’t disclosed. 

According to BusinessWeek, Weiner is hinting at an IPO, saying it would be an option for the company has it adds talent and technology tools that appeal to businesses. According to that article, the company expects to have 900 employees by the end of the year.