Can You Believe What You Read on the Web?

This article was originally published by Parade on Sunday, June 21, 2009.

Recently, a man identifying himself as a representative of Belkin, a major technology company, offered to pay people to post five-star reviews of its products on Amazon.com. When the incident was discovered, Belkin President Mark Reynoso expressed "surprise and dismay" over "unethical practices like this," and the company took steps to have any tainted reviews removed from the site. Yet businesses do spend about $1.6 billion a year on "word-of-mouth" advertising, promoting their goods to bloggers and to people who use social-media websites like Facebook, according to the research firm PQ Media.

Now the U.S. government is considering requiring people who write about products or services on the Internet to inform readers if they received compensation.

The Federal Trade Commission expects to vote on new marketing rules this summer, which would be the first revision to its endorsement guidelines since 1980. "When you're being paid to promote a product, you usually have to disclose the relationship between you and the advertiser," says Richard Cleland, an FTC assistant director.

But even if the FTC tightens its rules, experts encourage people to remain skeptical when reading opinions posted on the Web. "Go and talk to other people you trust," says Paul Rand, president-elect of the Word of Mouth Marketing Association. “Google the authors and see what else they’ve written." If you discover that a writer only posts glowing reviews about one company's products, look for other sources of advice.

— Katherine Reynolds Lewis