Today we announced the upcoming launch of video reviews on the Bazaarvoice platform. This is an exciting new innovation that will propel customer ratings and reviews to a new level even beyond photo reviews, which we also launched recently (I wrote about the impact of photo reviews in November). Everyone has heard of the amazing [...]

According to TechCrunch, Blockbuster has been very successful with their "Total Access" offering, which I wrote about in my round two post on Netflix vs. Blockbuster.  Apparently they attacked Netflix where it hurts (the immediacy of movie delivery), and it has resulted in Blockbuster growing their online membership by 700,000 over the last two and a half [...]

Since this is my first post to the Bazaarblog I thought I might introduce myself – I’m Michael Osborne, Vice President of Sales at Bazaarvoice.  I’ve been here for 6 months now and finally had a break between our great meetings with prospects to write up a quick post on something I’m very passionate about [...]

As a BusinessWeek subscriber, I look forward to Saturdays when I get the upcoming week's edition.  BusinessWeek is never as "meaty" as my favorite magazine, Wired, but it is a fast read, more focused (all business, all the time), and keeps me informed.  In this issue, the January 22, 2007 edition, I noticed a trend that mirrors a [...]

This week ForeSee Results, a firm that specializes in online satisfaction measurement, released findings from its Online Retail Satisfaction Index study.
Key findings of the study show that consumers desire and remember product reviews, and appreciate having them handy;

Nearly half (49 percent) of online holiday gift purchasers recall seeing online customer product reviews.
39 percent of [...]

Second Life just open-sourced their client browser.  I agree with them that this move was inevitable (and smart), and I think it will lead to accelerating adoption as well as linkages of Second Life to 2D Web, "real-life" experiences (like MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn, Yelp, Google Checkout, and the many others).  We are already seeing many linkages to social [...]

I read last night on Boing Boing, my favorite blog, that one of Amazon.com's most prolific customer reviewers, Kevin Killian, is publishing a selection of his best reviews in book form.  The publisher's description is certainly intriguing: 
Selections from the 1,000+ reviews that Killian has written for books, movies, and everyday products on Amazon.com. Subversive and [...]

Adding to my previous post on 2007 predictions . . . Trendwatching.com just posted their top 5 consumer trends for 2007.  If you don't currently subscribe to the Trendwatching.com Trend Briefing email newsletter, I strongly recommend that you do.  Trendwatching's global team of trendspotters and analysts works around the clock to surface new and often [...]

"More Cowbell" is one of my favorite sketches on Saturday Night Live. Featuring Will Farrel and Christopher Walken, it's about the recording of the song "(Don't Fear) the Reaper" by Blue Oyster Cult in 1976. See the video here.

The song's producer Bruce Dickinson (played by Walken) encourages Farrel's character to play more cowbell. The rest [...]

Happy New Year everyone, and welcome to my third Word-of-Mouth Wisdom interview.  Three is a powerful number in business (and in many other fields), so I chose to have this interview focus on the future of business and the Internet.
There has been a ton of buzz (mainly positive) about the online 3D world, Second Life.  My [...]