We all know the newspaper articles on restaurants windows trying to convince us to go in. People are naturally inclined to trust a restaurant more in this case as people crave for approval of their choices by authority figures, in this case “the food critics”.
But newspapers, magazines and editorial content only offer one single opinion and can be biased. So more than those recommendations, consumers trust other consumers. According to Nielsen, 70% of people trust consumer opionions posted online.
And this is where Google shows its brilliance again: they identified over 100,000 businesses in the U.S. as “Favorite Places on Google” based on Google users reviews on Google Maps for example. Each business received a traditional window decal with a unique QR code that you scan with your phone to read reviews, star the business as your own favorite and more.
This is a perfect example on how the power of peer-2-peer recommendations amongst consumers online translates itself into the real world and how the borders between online and offline are fading.
I’ll look forward to see on how this will expand in the future to for example with GPS, augmented reality and the your own friends network as a mobile recommendation panel on the go.
