Fakespot shuts down today after 9 years of detecting fake product reviews

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

Effect of Amazon Changes & Technical Limits

  • Amazon now requires login to see most reviews; Fakespot reportedly scraped listing pages server-side, so this change may have broken their pipeline.
  • Commenters note that continuing would likely require client-side analysis in users’ browsers, which is harder to scale and monetize for Mozilla.

How Well Did Fakespot Work?

  • Some users report it as “better than nothing”: it highlighted suspicious listings and prompted closer inspection.
  • Others saw frequent false positives on products they managed or wrote for, leading to mistrust and “good riddance” reactions.
  • It was described as increasingly unreliable in recent years, especially on grading sellers and Prime-fulfilled items.
  • Several argue LLM-generated and incentivized reviews (gift cards, refunds, free products) are now much harder to flag, since many are technically “real purchases.”

Mozilla’s Strategy, Monetization, and Discoverability

  • Many question why Mozilla acquired Fakespot without a clear business model or integration plan; several Firefox users never saw the Review Checker at all.
  • Suggested monetization paths: affiliate links (perceived as “icky” unless opt‑in), ads, subscriptions, or attribution revenue. All clash with user trust or platform policies.
  • A recurring theme: Mozilla starts promising side projects then lets them wither (“couldn’t find a sustainable model” as a pattern), raising doubts about leadership and mission focus.

Alternatives and New Efforts

  • Existing alternatives (ReviewMeta, TheReviewIndex, etc.) are seen as incomplete, outdated, or not drop‑in.
  • A few commenters are building “spiritual successors” using LLMs + ML + heuristics, debating subscription vs free-with-affiliate models; others think subscriptions will block adoption.
  • Some argue the only robust solution is paid, independent consumer review organizations that buy and test products directly.

Coping Without Fakespot

  • Common strategies:
    • Focus on 1–3 star reviews and coherent complaints, plus “frequently returned” labels.
    • Favor known brands or avoid Amazon for serious purchases.
    • Treat Amazon products as semi-disposable and lean on easy returns.
    • Cross-check on external sites, while remaining wary of affiliate-driven content.

Broader Distrust of Reviews & Platforms

  • Many consider on-platform reviews fundamentally compromised: fakes, astroturfing, competitor sabotage, seller pressure to remove negatives, and platforms’ incentives to keep ratings high.
  • Some see Amazon increasingly resembling AliExpress/Temu, with commingled inventory, counterfeit risk, and unreliable ratings.
  • A few highlight Fakespot’s own extensive data collection as another trust issue in this ecosystem.