I think it is becoming quite clear that Reddit is the most astroturfed place on the internet -- gaming Reddit for positive feedback and reviews is a lot easier and less painful than trying to game Google's results directly -- and there's an entire industry building up around it. Something to think about if you add "site:reddit" to product searches.
Reddit has always been heavily astroturfed (cough, Eglin Airforce Base), but since the mod blowup last year it almost feels like the bots and astroturfers are outnumbering the real users. The site has become unusable.
I think it's also pretty much impossible to avoid this.
As soon as something has enough trustworthiness and user base for product recommendations. It has value to the advertisers and they will "mine* out that value until it's exhausted.
I think it is becoming quite clear that Reddit is the most astroturfed place on the internet -- gaming Reddit for positive feedback and reviews is a lot easier and less painful than trying to game Google's results directly -- and there's an entire industry building up around it. Something to think about if you add "site:reddit" to product searches.