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Buffalo Trace

Unread postPosted: Fri Feb 04, 2011 12:24 pm
by bourbonv
Since Chris added a counter to the views in the "reviews" section on 12 June 2008, there have been over 57,000 views of the Buffalo Trace Reviews. That means there have been about 20,000 people a year reading those reviews! I have not seen that many views of the other brands, so my question is why so many for Buffalo Trace? Is there a link to the brand somewhere that is pushing these numbers up? I did not see one on the BT website, but maybe I missed it.

Re: Buffalo Trace

Unread postPosted: Fri Feb 04, 2011 8:16 pm
by delaware_phoenix
Maybe someone clever in marketing developed a bot to look for BT reviews and "view" them to bump up the count and make it look like there's a lot of interest in the brand.

Re: Buffalo Trace

Unread postPosted: Fri Feb 04, 2011 8:47 pm
by Mike
Follow the money....... who has the most to gain by paying for moving the BT reviews up in search engines.............not accusing anyone, but us BE folks know that (as good as BT bourbons are and can be) they are not really superior to those of WT, or HH, or any of the others. As is common knowledge, you can pay to have your product (not saying that BT has done this and I really seriously doubt that they did this) elevated by the search engines to appear at the top.

A good example of this is if you look for a particular piece of music with many search engines, the first thing (and several subsequent hits after the first) will be for ring tones to download to your phone. Those folks have paid to have their site the first to come up when a search is done. Bing is particularly bad about this. I hate the Bing search engine (Microsoft engine I believe.......much less reliable in my opinion than Google, about which I also have suspicions) and a pain in the ass.

NEVER assume that the first few hits in any search engine are the most reliable............all that means is that either (1) many foolish folks are happy with a first offered (and usually poor) answer, or (2) someone is paying to be first.

Note that if you search for answers to heath questions your first hits with most any search engine will be either pharmifrauds or drug companies with something to sell aside from reliable information.

You must use your God given intellect to figger out what information on the web is reliable. More and more of it is NOT reliable. For example, if you want to know what insecticide is useful for a pest, look for those from University sites, not those from pest companies.

When it comes to info on the web there is no substitute for the web's easy access..............but BE CAREFUL about what you take to be reliable.........just as one must be very skeptical about the information you get from the cable networks (any of them) on the internet...........they are not news organizations, they are out to capture audiences and appeal to prejudices, not to keep you informed. In my opinion, the best American is a skeptical American.

Re: Buffalo Trace

Unread postPosted: Sat Feb 05, 2011 12:27 pm
by bourbonv
Cheryl and Mike,
Both of you make interesting points. I had not considered a search bot driving up the numbers. And Mike, you, as always make an interesting point about following the money. However, what puzzels me is that the rest of BT's brands seem to range from a low of about 2,500 to a high of about 20,000 views in the same period. If it is distillery driven somehow, then they are not working on raising the numbers of the other brands. Other company brands also have numbers in the 2,000 to 20,000 views range.

There is no real problem here, I am just curious about what is going on and I was hoping someone with more computer saavy than myself would provide an answer. In any case, the numbers show just how popular the reviews are to the general public.

Re: Buffalo Trace

Unread postPosted: Mon Feb 07, 2011 8:53 am
by delaware_phoenix
Maybe it's also just web crawler search anomoly. I don't know how these programs decide to visit and re-visit a site, but it could be that.

When the article came out about me in the Times 2 Decembers ago, the views of my google map for retailers was in the thousands and thousands per month. That lasted for months. Then it dropped to tens of views per month.

I really was impressed with myself thinking that 10,000 people were interested in me. But I've since decided that it must have been 10,000 robot spyders. Too bad they don't have a booze expense account.

Re: Buffalo Trace

Unread postPosted: Fri Feb 18, 2011 11:58 am
by Chris
Another way to look at it is that Buffalo Trace has the highest number of user reviews of anything on the site... so that could explain a higher percentage of real people looking at it (presuming that the percentages of people viewing a bottling are the same as the percentages of people submitting reviews of it...

A side result of having had 34 user reviews is that it has been on the 'main' page more often than any other bourbon because it is at the top of the 'most recent user reviews' list, so that may 'drive' more human traffic as well as search engine traffic to the bottlings in that list (someone just stumbles on the site and clicks a few links here and there rather than actively searching for buffalo trace)... it could have been that they would have clicked whatever was on the top of the list at the time, but since BT has had more reviews than anything else on the site, it has had proportionately more views (both human and search engines)

Re: Buffalo Trace

Unread postPosted: Sat Feb 19, 2011 10:33 pm
by Mike
Excellent observations, Chris. It is unlikely that there is really anything sinister lying in the background on BT getting the most hits. I think you have explained it, certainly to my satisfaction.

Re: Buffalo Trace

Unread postPosted: Mon Feb 21, 2011 7:41 pm
by bourbonv
Mike,
I never claimed anything sinister, just curious. By the way, I think John and I figured it out yesterday. If you google "Buffalo Tace Review" BE pops up at the top and BT has been pushing into many new states and markets.

Re: Buffalo Trace

Unread postPosted: Mon Feb 21, 2011 9:33 pm
by Mike
It never entered my mind to think you really thought anything sinister was going on, Mike. I think I came closer to implying that than you did. Rereading my post I thought Chris had the most likely explanation. If I seemed to imply that you were heading in that direction, I certainly did not mean to do so. Please accept my apology for any unintended offense.

Re: Buffalo Trace

Unread postPosted: Tue Feb 22, 2011 1:01 pm
by bourbonv
Mike,
No offense taken.

Re: Buffalo Trace

Unread postPosted: Tue Feb 22, 2011 9:00 pm
by delaware_phoenix
I hadn't realized that BE came up first in a google search of BT review. So the number makes sense. Given the popularity of the brand it's not a surprise. So when a lot of people start looking at that review, it leads to a higher google rating, which gets more people looking at the review...

:idea: We're Number One! We're Number One! We're Number One! We're Number One! :king: