An interesting topic from today's class

In class today, Professor Brown discussed how researching is done in the blogosphere. His question to us was "how many of you have used customer feedback on the web about a certain product?". I personally use this sort of information regularly, whether it be consumer reviews of cd's, movies or restaurants. Usually when I am purchasing a product I will check it out on Amazon (even if that is not the site I am buying from), just to read what other customers had to say about it. By allowing consumers to comment on products, businesses are opening up a whole new level of communication that not only is extremely helpful, but it can act as a form of free publicity if the item has been "favored" or rated highly.