Bizwiki 2.0 goes live – Review Free!
Comments(5) The brand new version of Bizwiki.co.uk went live yesterday at lunchtime. Apart from being shinier, faster and easier to use than ever before, there is one change that will be instantly noticeable and that brings it in line with the US Bizwiki.com:
Bizwiki.co.uk is now review-free
This may seem to be bucking the trend for websites, with every second site on the web now offering review functionality, but we took the view that we would rather focus our efforts on what Bizwiki does best: building up a unique directory of detailed information about companies and businesses that any user can help improve and enlarge.
Bizwiki has always been dedicated to information over opinion, so it was on request from users that we rolled out a review feature for our UK site at a time where there were less alternatives. Apart from the useful information reviews provide, our goal was to ensure that opinions had their own space on the site and were less likely to be added to information sections.
Over the last few years we have seen the site and its users develop and change, and now an increasing proportion of registered Editors are representatives, owners or managers of businesses and companies. The quality of information has been consistently improving and we’ve been very happy to see the user base grow along with it.
We launched the US version of Bizwiki.com without reviews, and found that this has been nothing but beneficial in clarifying the purpose of this as the wiki for business, and distinguishing Bizwiki from sentiment-orientated sites like Yelp and Angieslist.
We are confident that this improved focus will give our users more of what they want, and enable our editors and staff to concentrate on increasing both the breadth of the site and the depth of information available about each record.
Finally I’d like to thank our Lead Developer Craig Sefton and Chief Technical Architect Keith Hinde for their tireless efforts to rebuild the site and get this new and highly improved version live.
Enjoy the new Bizwiki!
A note to businesses:
During the time that reviews were featured on Bizwiki.co.uk some companies accumulated a number of reviews from the public that they may want to retain. If so, don’t worry, nothing has been deleted. The reviews are not being displayed on this site, but are still available on request if you would like to get a copy of them for use on your own website or in your advertising material.
Email us at team@bizwiki.co.uk before the end of 2010 with the name of the company and we will send you a text copy of the reviews received free of charge.
Thanks.
 Digg |
 Reddit |
 Delicious |
 Yahoo Bookmarks |
 Facebook |
 BlinkList |
I can see why you have stopped showing reviews, but all 5 of ours were positive and a lot of our business comes from your site and the accessplace.com so I will have to get from from you thanks.
In the meantime, everybody know the High Street pet shop in Hove has all positive reviews, everyone loves us!
I do not understand why you have done away with the review section, this appears to be total madness.
Anyway that is not the main reason for sending a reply…at what point will you be admitting new businesses to you UK site? I passed your details onto an enthusiastic carpenter, who duelly entered his details on line…a month ago and they are still waiting inclusion.
Not a very good example I think.
Hi Chris, thanks for your comment. As stated in the above post, removing reviews was done as a means of clarifying the purpose of the site as the wiki for business, and distinguishing Bizwiki from sentiment-orientated sites.
As to the length of time your friend has waited for his business to be approved – please feel free to ask him to email team@bizwiki.co.uk with the Bizwiki url of his submission and our administrators will look into it.
With accessplace mentioned above, I’ve noticed a heck of a lot of traffic for one of my sites now being referred by said site, obviously due to your partnership. Another of my business sites receives very little from accessplace. Is there a criteria for businesses with regard to being included in accessplace, or by default is very bizwiki entry also included in accessplace results?
Hi Gavski, thanks for the question. All Bizwiki listings can be found on Accessplace via the Accessplace.com search function. But not all Bizwiki listings have a permanent listing on Accessplace as the site only covers a small selection of the categories that Bizwiki publishes. So if your second business isn’t listed on an Accessplace page it might be because it doesn’t fit one of the categories Accessplace covers. Hope that helps. If you would like to discuss specifics please feel free to email us using the contact form http://www.bizwiki.co.uk/contact.htm. Thanks.