Firefox plans to launch a built-in fake review detector for Amazon, Flipkart, and similar platforms

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• Oct 14, 2023 | Poonam Nath

Mozilla is developing a new "Review Checker" tool built into the Firefox web browser...

Digital Desk: Mozilla plans to introduce "Review Checker" in its Firefox web browser, aiming to eliminate bogus reviews on e-commerce platforms like Amazon, Flipkart, and others, thereby enhancing online shopping authenticity.

Mozilla's Review Checker tool, powered by Fakespot, will initially work on US e-commerce sites like Amazon, Walmart, and Best Buy, in the United States with plans to expand future support.

"Confirming the feature to The Verge," Firefox's senior director of product management, Byron Jourdan, revealed that the company is currently testing the "functionality of 'Review Checker with a limited audience in the United States."

The Review Checker is going to use machine learning and artificial intelligence to aid consumers in finding and deleting untrustworthy reviews from e-commerce websites, according to a screenshot of the Firefox plugin shared by MSPower. 

However, users will be able to access the feature by clicking on a price tag symbol in the browser's URL bar, which will open a sidebar providing information about the product page being visited. The sidebar will also include a grade for the product's reviews, an "adjusted rating" out of five stars that excludes untrustworthy ratings, and highlights from previous reviews. 

Notably, Fakespot grades product reviews from A to F, with A designating the most trustworthy and F denoting the least credible.

While the feature's availability has not yet been formally announced, rumours indicate that Mozilla has begun testing it and expects to make it available to everyone on November 21 with Firefox version 120 for desktop and Android. 

According to the firm, Review Checker employs Oblivious HTTP, which prevents Mozilla from associating the user to their device and the items they have browsed.

The Review Checker tool from Mozilla is intended to assist users in identifying and removing untrustworthy reviews from e-commerce websites. Given the rising problem of bogus reviews, this will be a useful tool. 

Similarly, Trustpilot eliminated almost 2.7 million bogus ratings in 2021, proving that phoney reviews are more frequent than one may imagine. 

While platforms such as Amazon have taken steps to eliminate bogus reviews in recent years, developments in generative technology may make distinguishing between actual and fake reviews more difficult in the future.