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Think 'transparency' is an established, maturing theme? You ain’t seen nothing yet. Sure, we’ve been harping on forever about the many ways consumers can research, compare and review their way to a more powerful position, but every month brings us smart new examples of consumers and brands intent on making opinions, quality standards and prices even more transparent.

So, it's time for a fresh look at the latest and greatest in the transparency arena*, where savvy consumers (as well as on-trend brands) can score triumph after triumph. We’ll look at how reviews are set for even more spectacular growth, how price comparison is getting much more sophisticated, and how the inner-workings of companies will be exposed in pragmatic new ways. We then end this briefing with a countertrend, OPENLY OPAQUE, that raises the bar even higher.

*Please note that this Trend Briefing limits itself to consumers’ desire for finding the best, the cheapest and/or the most ethical, as opposed to enjoying transparency of all information and knowledge, from government (in)action to the boom in personal profiles. Somehow, we think you will find the below lengthy enough as it is ;-)

The fortress of one-way communications from a non-trusted source (aka advertising) is crumbling!

Some telling findings from the latest twice-yearly Nielsen Global Online Consumer Survey of over 25,000 online consumers from 50 countries:

"Recommendations by personal acquaintances and opinions posted by consumers online are the most trusted forms of advertising globally. The Nielsen survey shows that 90% of online consumers worldwide trust recommendations from people they know, while 70% trust consumer opinions posted online."

There are many more research studies, findings, dissertations, and so on that confirm the same fact: reviewing is the new advertising. This shouldn’t come as a surprise: just as with other trends, what’s unfolding now is a ‘forever need’ among consumers, one that's now being satisfied in a superior and previously unattainable fashion. In this case, the need is for trusted advice and recommendations—for feeling in control, for knowing the facts, for avoiding mistakes and disappointments—in order to make that perfect purchase. Which has become even more pressing as choice-overload continues: never before was there so much to choose from, in mature consumer societies, and thus such a need for reviews.

It's a need that is met online by having access to millions of other consumers and their experiences and opinions, from giant review portals to real-time channels such as Twitter.

In short, businesses have to understand and accept that consumers’ decision making processes, which ultimately come down to whether they will buy from you or from someone else, have truly shifted to a new, powerful peer-to-peer arena.

So if that’s the current playing field, let’s look at the latest developments in the booming world of reviews:

1.6 billion online… and now get ready for the next billion, courtesy of the mobile web

While hundreds of millions of consumer reviews are already zipping around cyberspace, prepare for a deluge of truly biblical proportions. And a deluge of review innovations, too. Some numbers:

• 1.6 billion consumers are now online, and the majority of them have been online for years. They're skilled bargain seekers and ‘best of the best’ hunters, they're avid online networkers, and they're opinionated reviewers and advisors.
• On top of that, many more consumers in emerging markets are eager to jump into cyberspace with two thumbs: according to a UN report, there are now more than four billion mobile phone subscriptions worldwide, two-thirds of which are in developing countries. Even if only a third of those phones get online access in the future, the next billion online users are on the horizon.
• And for future contributors and viewers, especially those that are born to the web, for whom contributing and sharing is a given, reviewing will be a way of life forever.

Google Rich Snippets and Netflix: aggregation and syndication galore.

The reviewing masses will increasingly be enticed to review (and share):

• Product ratings and reviews provider Bazaarvoice’s ShoutIT app enables reviewers to have their reviews effortlessly appear on their Facebook, Digg or Delicious pages as well, while Netflix has hooked up with Facebook to allow users' reviews to be shared on their profile pages.
• Members that post a review on Epinions are rewarded with so called Eroyalties credits, which are in turn are based on an ‘Income Share’ program. The Income Share pool is a portion of Epinions' income, and is split among all authors based on how often their reviews were used in making a decision (whether or not the reader actually made a purchase). Reviewers then can redeem their Eroyalties credits in US dollars.

Meanwhile, big players in the review arena are aggregating, white labeling and syndicating like crazy, causing existing reviews to pop-up in multiple places. A snapshot:

• TripAdvisor, which boasts close to 25 million reviews and opinions on more than 490,000 hotels and attractions, while attracting 25 million+ monthly visitors, earlier this year signed syndication deals with VisitBritain.com, easyJet Holidays and its sister site Hotels.com.
  Meanwhile, travel site Raveable now provides a comprehensive view of hotels across the United States by aggregating and summarizing more than 35 million reviews of some 55,000 US hotels.
• UK based comparison shopping service Shopzilla just teamed up with PowerReviews.com, a provider of customer reviews, to add product reviews to its product and price comparison service.
• Bazaarvoice recently signed a deal with UK retailers Debenhams and Asda to include customer reviews on their sites.
• Meanwhile, Sears Holdings, the retailer, launched its own review sites: MySears.com and MyKmart.com.
• Google’s new Rich Snippets program allows the search engine to now display product rating, review count, and actual review text direct in Google search results.
  
  In fact, expect this to be the biggest ‘(R)Evolution’: universal search for products, brands, services and anything else consumers are interested in will turn up aggregated, relevant reviews almost by default, tagged and non-tagged, pulled from review sites (niche and massive), from blogs, from Twitter, from Facebook, from YouTube, and so on.
  
  
• Let’s not forget about more compelling formats for reviews: a revealing video says more than a 1,000 photos, and thus the proliferation of videocam phones, including Apple's new iPhone 3G S which includes video functionality, geo tagging, and direct upload facilities for YouTube and Mobile, will be yet another push for video-reviews to take off.
  

• Reviews are also making their way to the 'real world': aforementioned Bazaarvoice now works with UK retailers Argos and Halfords to feature customer reviews in paper catalogs (Argos alone reaches 17 million UK households with its catalogs).

Images courtesy of TechCrunch and Mashable.

More ‘real world’ developments (with a virtual twist): expect plenty of augmented reality-meets-reviews examples to pop-up soon. Here are two to get you started:

• Local review site Yelp boasts the first iPhone app with augmented reality. Users can put their iPhone camera in front of a restaurant, with Yelp’s reviews then overlaying their real-world views. (Source: Mashable).
  Meanwhile, GraffitiGeo, a mobile service that allows users to share brief reviews of restaurants, is working on a similar iPhone app. More info at TechCrunch.

Yes, that’s one gross pic, but hey, anything to get your attention!

Important side-effect of the above is that the deluge in postings will also unmask, outnumber and thus neutralize fake reviews posted by malicious consumers or desperate brands. Which will lead to an even greater trust of recommendations and reviews. In the near future, consider the discussion on whether to trust reviews to be over.

Scale is one thing. Scope is another. No B2C sector is immune to the review virus. Expect every industry, every sector, every product to eventually succumb to reviews, Tripadvisor style. Examples:

• Health | Vimo, a comparison-shopping site for health care, offers rate-my-doctor and rate-my-dentist functionalities. A similar review service is offered by ZocDoc.
• Beauty | On Makeupalley.com members give reviews on everything beauty-related, from makeup and skincare to hair dryers and perfume. The site includes detailed information about each user’s skin tone, hair color, skin type and eye color at the top of the review so that readers can gauge how well the advice will fit their own needs.
• Law & education | Avvo profiles legal professionals, including their experience, areas of practice, and ratings from clients. Ratemyteachers does the same for teachers. Also check out Yollege.
• Airports | Sleeping In Airports has over 6,300 reviews of how airports around the world rate for sleeping in public areas.
• Tech | Fixya is a popular post-sale tech support site, where 15 million members help each other with product support questions on 1 million products. It has now added product recommendations to its website.
• Recruitment | Glassdoor aims to provide an insider's look at what it's really like to work at a company, both financially and otherwise. The site gathers real-time reviews, ratings and salary details about specific jobs in 28,000+ companies. Also check out Australian LiveSalary.
• Restaurants | Dishola eschews general restaurant reviews in favor of dish-specific (!) advice and information. Members can read smart reviews by Dishola editors, industry professionals and other members, as well as post reviews and photos of their own favorite dishes.
• Automotive | JeepReview offers reviews of Jeep parts, accessories, retailers, and trips.
• Printing | Printer.com provides information on a wide range of printers and cartridges; the site currently features more than 4,500 printers and over 1,950 cartridges.

Note: a fun entrepreneurial opportunity is to start a review portal (reviewcircus.com?) that lets consumers quickly find the right niche review site for their query. Just a page listing the various B2C categories, and links to related niche review sites. Should take you less than a week to get live, and could be a great advertising cash cow ;-)

These days, hotel room reviews are posted from the room, not upon return home.

Deluge and connectivity will lead to real-time reviewing of products and services:

• First of all, as more people are contributing, the sheer mass of reviews will in effect lead to daily if not hourly reviews on any topic imaginable. Which means more timely and accurate information.
• Secondly, as universal online access meets netbooks, laptops, and phones, virtually all equipped with (video) cameras and audio capture, we're already seeing an increase in on-the-spot reviews, from text to full-blown videos. Remember, someone going through an annoying or pleasant experience, but lacking online access, has to postpone his or her review, which often results to not posting at all.
  
  In fact, Twitter has established itself as the real-time* snapshot of what people are thinking/feeling/experiencing and yes, reviewing, around the world. Expect numerous services to capitalize on this burgeoning ‘global brain'. One example: SkinniPopcorn provides Twitter feeds of users' real time comments about newly released films and the current US box office top ten, as well as the ten movies that are currently mentioned most often.
  
  * As promised last June, when we highlighted FOREVERISM, we will dedicate next month's Trend Briefing to NOWISM, covering all the business opportunities related to the emerging real-time economy. Will land in your inbox or feed early October.
  
  

• And yes, reading reviews on the spot will become uber-popular too, of course! More on this in 'Price Pandemonium', below.

Yet another way reviews can be made more attractive and useful, and thus more powerful: combine them with MAPMANIA. Check out the following location-based review sites that let you find the best hotel room, restaurant table, playground or, yes, airline seat.

• The KaBOOM! Playspace Finder is a user-generated online directory that lets anyone enter, search for and rate play spaces. Users can add photos and comments for each play space, as well as detailed descriptions including available playground equipment or amenities. Some 16,000 play areas across the USA and Canada are now listed on the Google Maps-based site.
• Homewoodsuites by Hilton Hotels offers guests the option of picking their hotel room. Guests can view hotel floor plans and book specific suite types based on their location, photographs and descriptions. Adding a touch of PERKONOMICS, the Suite Selection tool has (for now) been reserved for premium Hilton club members who use Hilton's eCheck-in.
• Wagaboo's restaurants in Madrid and Barcelona let prospective visitors select the restaurant, date and time they're interested in online, then presenting them with a seating map with available (and suggested) tables.
• Still going strong, SeatGuru helps passengers select airplane seating, in-flight amenities and airline information based upon the airline and type of aircraft they’re flying. The site now features 25,000+ user comments, and offers more than 650 airline seat maps covering 90+ airlines. The service has now also been incorporated into its parent site, Expedia.
• TripKick tackles an equally important aspect of travel: hotel rooms. Coverage of each hotel includes detailed information on which rooms to request—which rooms are oversized (rooms ending in 03 and 04, for example), which have great bathrooms or are quieter than others. TripKick also points out which floors are better, and which to avoid. Guests are encouraged to add their own reviews and upload photos of rooms they've stayed in.

BTW, we're planning to do a Trend Briefing on MAPMANIA in the near future, incorporating the latest in augmented reality, so please do stay tuned.

Do you know just whose recommendations and ratings you’re blindly lapping up?

Here’s what is probably one of the current reviewosphere’s biggest hurdles (and thus one of it's biggest opportunities), and no, it's not trust, it's relevance. Who are these people whose reviews determine what you read, where you stay, what you drive, where you eat, what you watch, where you get operated on…? Which is why, for years, we’ve brought up TWINSUMERS: consumers whose lifestyles mirror yours, who think, live, act, consume alike, and whose reviews therefore have real relevance. Basically, the onslaught of recommendations needs some transparency of its own.

For those of you who have already worked out and executed a review strategy: please focus on making reviews relevant for your visitors and customers by providing profiles, backgrounds, context. A nice win for 2010? Some examples of what’s (slowly) building in this field:

• Profiles | booking.com and TripAdvisor do offer traveler profiles, and they will at least give you information about the reviewer’s age, gender, travel styles, location, travel experience, personal circumstances and so on, but there’s obviously plenty of room for more extensive profiles, if not collaborative filtering. Parallel to this, expect more people to first ‘collect’ the people they trust and/or admire (Twitter followers/following, or Facebook friends) and then turn to their ‘audience’ for advice/recommendations.
• Professionals | Oyster Hotel Reviews employs 13 professional reporters who independently review hotels, paying for their own stays. Once a review of a particular hotel has been posted online, Oyster invites other travelers who've visited the same hotel to add their comments and reviews. The site also recently began requiring consumers to use Facebook Connect if they want to rant or rave about a hotel. Says Oyster: "The way we see it, if you’re willing to attach your identity to your commentary, you’re willing to stand behind what you say. No anonymous mudslinging; no PR propaganda."

Expect a host of new ventures to spring up and monetize collaborative filtering and profile matching in the next 12 months, most likely by partnering with the Twitters, Facebooks and LinkedIns of this world, who are already profile-driven. One for you?

Do not let bad reviews go unanswered!

Surprisingly, so far the Review (R)Evolution has been pretty much one-way. Quite a few brands still seem to believe that they’ve been granted an eternal ‘grace period’ when it comes to dealing with all of the above. While brands are no longer unaware of reviews, they (to a large degree) still choose to listen, not talk back, trying to ‘learn’ from the for-all-to-see Review (R)Evolution. Which is surprising, to say the least, since a quick and honest reply or solution can defuse even the most damaging complaint.

In fact, there’s no standing on the sideline when it comes to TRANSPARENCY TRIUMPH, and the least any brand should want or demand is the right of reply: to get their side of the story in front of the mass audiences that now scan reviews. Expect smart companies to increasingly post their apologies and solutions, preferably directly alongside reviews from unhappy customers. And yes, that should include the occasional candid rebuttal by a company that feels (and can prove) that a particular review is unfair or inaccurate.

To see the future for Right of Reply, check out:

• Tripadvisor’s Management Response feature allows representatives of hotels, restaurants and attractions to respond to reviews written about their properties.
• Local business review site Yelp allows business owners to manage their own page with detailed information, and lets them respond privately to reviewers. The latter is also offered by Bazaarvoice, which allows owners direct contact with posters of negative reviews. HomeAway, the vacation rentals marketplace, has an owner-response feature, too.
• Swedish Fairshopping allows consumers to post public complaints about companies they have done business with. The companies mentioned are then given the chance to reply on the site. Other users can chime in on the conversation, agreeing or disagreeing with the initial complaint.

There’s also a self-organized ‘right of reply’ for B2C brands: allowing for reviews on their own site. All they have to do is to ask their customers and they're in business. Biggest advantage: a guaranteed opportunity to publicly react to bad reviews that would otherwise pop up in less accessible spots. And favorable reviews will of course bring the benefit of instant endorsements of whatever it is you're hawking. Just one example: American Apparel’s on-site reviews.

Who knows, one day, well-performing ‘direct brands’ may actually desire and encourage this kind of feedback, which in turn will further add to the deluge.

Last but not least, check out services that monitor the mood out there, aggregating online comments, reviews and bits of feedback from consumers about your products or brands.
And yes, here too, Twitter is an amazing example of how easy it has become to do some quick checks on what the verdict is on any kind of new product, service and everything else worth reviewing by millions of twitterers. Two examples: ScoutsLabs and Twitrratr.

You have no excuse for not knowing, and you have no excuse for not replying, either ;-)

Replying to angry mobs is the second best solution.

May we humbly remind you that bad reviews are not the problem, but a symptom? Not listening to (dissatisfied) customers is often at the root of the problem. Consumers don’t post their bad experiences straightaway. Most will notify you or one of your colleagues first. It’s mismanagement of complaints and conflicts that invokes postings. Whether it’s someone at your helpdesk, someone in your stores, or an account manager; there’s virtually always an opportunity to settle an issue before it goes public. And if you really screw up, beat customers to the punch by being the first to report failures. Let customers know how you fix problems. Eventually, this will free up resources and energy to actively focus on enabling happy customers to post positive reviews. Now that's TRANSPARENCY TRIUMPH ;-)

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Venture Capital

Watch this and then in your blogs say whether Christian was right to accept the offer.

Homework Pre-IB

Comment on the 20 new business ideas shown below.

Farmers use vending machines to sell local produce
Food & beverage / Retail

The result of a collaboration between a farm and a vending machine
manufacturer, Regiomat machines currently sell fresh milk, eggs,
butter, cheese, potatoes and sausage in thirteen German towns.

Public Enemy uses Sellaband to fan-fund new album
Entertainment

Crowdfunding venture Sellaband is expanding its model to include
musicians who have already made a name for themselves. First
up: Public Enemy, planning their thirteenth album.

Cards to inspire random acts of kindness
Non-profit / Social cause

Aiming to make random acts of kindness more frequent, KIND
Snacks has launched an effort that uses 'pay it forward' cards to
remind people to be kind.

Wedding registry for original art
Style & design

Should marriage really be celebrated with pots, pans and food
processors? Aiming to offer a less dreary alternative, a New York
art gallery has launched a registry service.

Operator-assisted web search in India & Uganda
Life hacks / Non-profit / Social cause

Proving that the internet’s information doesn’t always have to
appear on-screen, Question Box brings the web’s intelligence
to offline and low-literacy communities.

Deluxe golf carts as neighbourhood transportation
Automotive / Transportation

Electric cars are far from mainstream, but in several US
neighbourhoods, golf carts and other diminutive electric vehicles
are part of the very fabric of community life.

No-frills gyms, open 24/7
Lifestyle & leisure

Aiming to set itself apart from all of the other gyms and health clubs
in Australia, Jetts Gym offers cheaper memberships by cutting costs
and shirking little-used or unnecessary services.

App recommendations based on your tweets & status
updates
Telecom & mobile

16apps scours users' Facebook, Twitter, FriendFeed or LastFM
accounts for information about their hobbies, lifestyle and location.

Adjusting jeans for pregnant waistlines & back again
Fashion & beauty

Pregnant mothers simply send in their favourite jeans, and Denim
Therapy inserts expandable side inseams in the pants that will
move and grow as the woman's belly expands.

Smart use of the Smart brand: car-sharing by Daimler
Automotive / Transportation

Aiming to grab a share of the growing car-sharing market, Daimler
created car2go, which enables customers to order and pick up a
Smart car within minutes.

Logos off the rack, created by the crowds
Marketing & advertising

iStockphoto is already a familiar name for its low-priced stock
photography, illustrations and multimedia files. Next up: a line
of user-generated corporate logos.

Wearable device tracks fitness data 24/7
Lifestyle & leisure

Fitbit is a small device the user can wear around the clock for
continuous, automatic and comprehensive reporting on fitness-
related activities and sleeping habits.

Interactive piggy bank teaches kids about money
Financial services / Education

The Ekomini Treasure Chest features a patented coin-reader
technology and hooks up to a computer via USB, enabling children
to keep track of their savings and learn basic financial skills.

Intention-based shipping brought to UK
Transportation

Shiply is a free online marketplace where transport companies bid
on shipments listed by consumers, helping fill empty trucks and
giving consumers access to cheap shipping.

Online exchange for builders' surplus goods
Eco & sustainability

Hoping to keep waste out of landfills, BuilderScrap is a free site for
the construction trade that aims to connect builders who have extra
materials with those who need them.

Free Ivy League courses for high-schoolers
Education / Media & publishing

The new lecture series is aimed at students taking Advanced
Placement exams, which give them a chance to study college
level material and potentially earn credit towards a future degree.

'Stock market' for art to crowdfund 10 public projects
Style & design

Each project is assigned a certain number of shares -- equal to
twice its funding target -- and half of those shares are automatically
assigned to the participating artist.

Clothes swapping meets Netflix
Fashion & beauty

thredUP looks for good matches in the virtual closets of members to
find items that might be suitable for swap-ready users. It sends them
one such item for each thredUP envelope they've purchased.

Rotating baby stroller with eco-creds
Lifestyle & leisure

The foldable stroller features 360 degree rotation that allows the
child to face forward, back or even sideways, while a twist-and-lift
mechanism permits one-handed folding.

New tool for predicting flight delays
Tourism & travel / Life hacks

Using a patent-pending algorithm, Flightcaster claims that it can
predict more than 95 percent of delays to flight arrivals up to six
hours in advance.

Making money by writing blogs

There are hubpages you could write for...but this post is about one particualr method: Blog Distributor

This is how it works:

Approximately 25% of bloggers now get paid to write postings on their blogs and link those postings to websites. The reason that these blog postings are valuable is that, when they are linked to websites, those websites will achieve higher rankings in the search engines. Then those websites will sell more of their service or product. Those websites are willing to pay for your assistance.

1. We will pay you to write blog postings on your blog and link them to our clients' websites.
   
   
2. The more popular your blog is, the more money you can make. But all blogs have value in our system.
   
   
3. You fill out our Sign Up form, describing your blog.
   
   
4. Clients register their needs with us.
   
   
5. Blog Distributor will match client jobs with bloggers. If you're a match, we'll email you with details about the new job.
   
   
6. You can accept or pass on any new job and you have 24 hours to make that decision. As soon as you accept, you have another 24 hours from that time to create your posting and let us know about it.
   
   
7. You will not be writing reviews of products. You will be writing in general about the business of the client. (We'll send you the information that you need to knowledgeably write the posting.)
   
   
8. We'll check your posting to make sure that it meets our standards.
   
   
9. We'll send you the linking information to link your posting to the client's website.
   
   
10. We'll check that your posting is live on your blog and linked to the right website page.
    
    
11. You get paid every month.

And a review of it.........

Blog Distributor is one of the newer companies that is willing to pay cash to bloggers in exchange for posts about particular topics or products.

There are several advantages to signing up with Blog Distributor such as, unlike many of the paid to blog opportunities, Blog Distributor pays weekly via paypal and there is no minimum amount to cash out, everyone just gets paid whatever is in their accounts once per week. This means of course that as long as your posts are accepted after being reviewed you can expect to be paid.

Another advantage to getting paid to blog with Blog Distributor is that the minimum payment for a posting is $5. However, you can be paid much more depending on the amount of traffic that gets to your blog. A few other nice things about Blog Distributor are that your posts only have to be 100 words, and you can word them how you'd like except for profanity, or hateful and violent language. Having that nifty word limit actually means you can make much more because you can take on more opportunities when you only have to write 100 words for each one. Also Blog Distributor does not wait 30 days before checking blog postings, they do it within 48-72 hours. While your posting can be rejected, they usually will give you 24 hours to make corrections and thus still earn the money.

There are a few disadvantages though, and that is that Blog Distributor does not have a referral program. Since referrals are one nifty way you can make extra cash doing these kinds of things, it's kind of a bummer that Blog Distributor doesn't have such a program. A second disadvantage is that rather than posting jobs on a board where you can go and pick them up, Blog Distributor instead notifies you by e-mail when a blogging job comes up that matches your blog, and you must reserve it if you want that opportunity. Another disadvantage at least in some people's eyes is that you cannot put anywhere in a paid for posting that says it's a paid for posting. Even with these two disadvantages though, in my opinion, Blog Distributor's advantages outweigh its disadvantages.

Here's how Blog Distributor works. You have to have a blog, and there must be 20 blog postings in 90 days at least. Also, your blog must be indexed by Google. If its not your blog will be automatically rejected. So, providing you meet the two above requirements, then you sign up for an account with Blog Distributor. If you want you can have more than one blog with them, but the posts you do for each blog must be unique, you cannot cut and paste content from one Blog Distributor posting into another blog and get paid for each one. Once your blog has been approved, when there are jobs that match the content of your blog you will receive an e-mail and then you must reserve that job. You then have 24 hours to complete the posting. If you do not then the job is sent to another blogger, and you lose the opportunity. So, it is imperative that you check your junk mail box regularly for jobs in the event that for some reason your e-mail thinks these e-mails are spam. Then your posting is reviewed within 48-72 hours and either accepted or rejected. If it is rejected most of the time you will be given 24 hours to fix what is wrong and resubmit it.

While Blog Distributor is very new, it is easy see the potential to make a good income from blogging with them. You can sign up for Blog Distributor here.