• by David Berkowitz , June 13, 2006

A conversation, partly verbatim and mostly imagined, with Cara, this week's guest Insider:

Cara: You should do a column on how no one makes up their own mind about anything anymore, and how everyone relies on what everyone else says first.

David: I'm not sure I agree with the premise. This obsession with what others say isn't particularly new. Consumer Reports launched in 1936, Roger Ebert started as a film critic in 1967, and the Zagat Survey came out in 1979.

C: Sure, but the Internet has made it all easier to access. Before anyone goes anywhere or does anything or buys anything, they go online, search for reviews, and base their decision on what someone or everyone else is saying.

D: Yes, but that doesn't mean the concept's new. It just means the information is more prevalent and accessible.

C: But that's the whole basis of what you're writing about. That's like saying you won't write about local search because the first Yellow Pages directory appeared in 1886. The accessibility of information has led to an obsession. Just with the two of us, how many times do we determine what or where we'll eat, what shows we'll see, or what trips we'll take based on reviews? At HopStop.com,, even the subway lines are rated.

D: You caught me. But since you're the one convinced I should write a column about this, then I'll leave it to you to flesh out the idea. What's the impact on marketers?

C: Marketers will only be as successful as what others say about them. The difference is that now anyone can get on a pedestal and offer their opinion. Look at the purchases you've made lately.

D: Many were impulse buys, like when I went on a book shopping spree one night. Several were books I'd never heard of by authors I've never encountered.

C: So how did you choose them?

D: By reading what the critics said on the book jackets. Still, shopping in a store isn't search, is it? And reviews on book jackets are nothing new.

C: Since when do you take everything so literally? Imagine walking down the block and the same reviews you see on books are on every place of business--every restaurant, doctor's office, hair salon, retailer, drugstore, and everything else. This is already happening, thanks to the proliferation of mobile devices and services.

D: I see where you're going with this...

C: Let's start with a service business, such as a hair salon, or a barbershop, for your purposes. On your mobile device, there are a dozen reviews--nine glowing, three excoriating. You don't like the one-in-four odds that you'd get a bad haircut, so you hit the search button and find five other barbers in the area, three with an 85 percent approval rating or better, and two in your price range. You choose the slightly pricier one since it also has the higher rating, ruling out the designer salon that's the best reviewed but way over budget. Those book jacket write-ups are now plainly visible for that barbershop.

D: Except unlike the book publisher, the barber doesn't have control over the reviews. And there's much more relevant information available, updated instantly.

C: You're catching on. Next, you walk into an electronics store for a new set of headphones. Your mobile device gives you reviews from "experts" and consumers, and then you run a search to see prices at every other retailer within half a mile, as well as online. You want them now, so you pay $5 more to take them with you.

D: You can do this today, even if it's not quite so seamless.

C: It's getting there. After your haircut and shopping, you're starving. Just walking down the block, you get the reviews and average prices for every restaurant nearby. Alongside the main listings, you spot an ad for an organic Indian restaurant around the corner that you didn't know was there, and the reviews entice you. Walking in, [you see] it's deserted, but supposedly it has the best tikka masala in the neighborhood. You scan the menu, going for a Taj Mahal beer and a couple of highly rated appetizers.

D: There's a trade-off here. I've gone for all the best reviewed items, but I'm losing the capacity to try for myself.

C: Yes, but you might not have gone into that Indian restaurant at all if not for the reviews. And you tried a goat dish that you would have completely overlooked.

D: But I haven't made a single decision on my own. Every decision was determined by search, by mobile marketing, by word of mouth.

C: But the quality of the decisions you made improved. You came out with a great haircut, found a new favorite restaurant, and with those noise-canceling headphones, you can't hear your colleague gloat about the latest Yankees win even with half their starters injured.

D: And it's all because of search.

C:I thought you said this had nothing to do with search.

D: I give up. We really have no clue yet just how much power search will have over us, do we?

C: What do you mean "we"?