WebProNews

Writing online reviews is good for the psyche, and a majority of adults like to help others by sharing their opinions this way. Yahoo had Harris Interactive survey people on their online review habits. Reviews can help tilt someone's interest in an item or service in favor of it, making good reviews valuable to businesspeople of all kinds.

The Yahoo Local blog said a desire to help others, followed by a desire to promote the business and help the merchant succeed, motivated reviewers to write.

"Based on these motivators, it’s no surprise that three in four online adults (77 percent) agree that sites with online reviews of local businesses are valuable community tools, and one in three adults (33 percent) feel more connected to their community by contributing to online review Web sites," Frazier Miller, Yahoo Local's GM, said in the post.

80 percent of online adults in the survey were likely to be influenced by the presence of reviews for an item. Positive reviews held more influence than negative ones, at a rate that Miller said reflected a similar study from last year.

While this study applied to Yahoo Local, entrepreneurs everywhere should heed the importance of reviews as a feature. If it isn't available for one's site, this would be a good time to implement them and build up a body of reviews for 2008's holiday shopping season.

follow me on Twitter