June 15, 2016 – CRAlgorithm Ver. 0.69b
Significant updates have been incorporated to our algorithm in this update. We have merged Reviewer Strength and Review Strength, introduced Sentiment Strength, upgraded the ability for the algorithm to recognize the quality of the reviewer, further strengthened the ability to recognize insightful reviews, introduced the requirement that a service vendor must have a physical location for it to be eligible for rankings in that country, and recalibrated our scoring system across all variables.
- We have merged Reviewer Strength metric into our Review Strength metric. We felt the Reviewer had just as much to do with the review itself. We did keep all the elements of how we measure the quality of the Reviewer within our algorithm for the benefit of our users. Additionally, this enables us to introduce a new major element to our algorithm for the benefit of our buyers.
- Sentiment Strength. We now make use of tools that use machine learning models and multiple signals (including web and social) to determine the public sentiment of the companies in our database. Instead of trying to rebuild these tools, which have been developed in some cases over a decade, we incorporated these tools in our algorithm and gave it 20% value to the overall score given to a company. This helps our visitors significantly in that it doesn’t only incorporate reviews left on our website, but also how all users on the web collectively feel about companies on our rankings.
- LinkedIn Review Adjustments. As companies try to game the rankings, we continue to calibrate our algorithm to the benefit of our visitors and buyers of such products and services. Our algorithm now takes a closer look at the LinkedIn Reviewer themselves and the types of reviews they contribute. One LinkedIn reviewer is no longer the same as another LinkedIn reviewer. Buyers will now get rankings that are influenced by legitimate reviewers rather than LinkedIn reviewers created to influence rankings.
- Insightful Reviews adjustments have been made to give more weightage to those reviews that are deemed as more useful. Buyers expect reviews to be helpful, although reviews such as “Company XYZ sucks” can be considered valuable, we have now incorporated additional weightage to reviews that are more explanatory and have concrete details.
- Localization. This new attribute applies only to service vendors on our website and not software products. We now require that a service vendor have a physical location in the country they wish to be eligible for. This enables buyers to connect with companies that are more likely to be able to assist them, especially for services that are location or region dependent.
- Scoring System. Some value adjustments have been made to give slightly less importance towards the Verification Status that should be expected from all vendors and more weight towards Sentiment Strength and Engagement Strength. Less importance has also been placed on Profile Strength since it is relatively simple for a company to complete their profile.