It’s not always easy to sort out genuine rave reviews from online users from those made by company plants, but technology may be able to sort out what the gullible human eye cannot. Cornell University researchers say they’ve developed software that can identify fake reviews.

CNET reports the software is 90 percent accurate in sorting out the fake reviews from the genuine, achieving far more success than the average person, who can only spot the fakes half the time.

Click on this link for a PDF demonstration of the software’s capabilities.

How much do you rely upon anonymous online reviews to make buying decisions, and how do you spot the fakes?

Cornell software fingers fake online reviews [CNET via Slashdot]

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