Amazon is testing a new way to show star ratings for products in search results that is more difficult to parse at a glance, as reported by Android Police.
I don’t like this change because it gets rid of the easily glanceable stat of the volume of ratings in favor of the percentage of how many are five stars.
A statement from Amazon didn’t confirm that it’s making the changes shown in Android Police, but it did leave open the possibility that it might.
“We are always innovating on behalf of customers to provide the best possible shopping experience,” Amazon spokesperson Maria Boschetti said in an email to The Verge.
(Note that Amazon’s star ratings aren’t a simple average but are calculated using “machine-learned models,” according to a support page.)
While writing this article, I’ve warmed up to my colleague Sean Hollister’s proposal that Amazon get rid of star ratings altogether.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Amazon is testing a new way to show star ratings for products in search results that is more difficult to parse at a glance, as reported by Android Police.
I don’t like this change because it gets rid of the easily glanceable stat of the volume of ratings in favor of the percentage of how many are five stars.
A statement from Amazon didn’t confirm that it’s making the changes shown in Android Police, but it did leave open the possibility that it might.
“We are always innovating on behalf of customers to provide the best possible shopping experience,” Amazon spokesperson Maria Boschetti said in an email to The Verge.
(Note that Amazon’s star ratings aren’t a simple average but are calculated using “machine-learned models,” according to a support page.)
While writing this article, I’ve warmed up to my colleague Sean Hollister’s proposal that Amazon get rid of star ratings altogether.
I’m a bot and I’m open source!