Admit it — sometimes it’s just fun to read the one-star Yelp reviews on the dive bar down the street. Amazon.com even compiles its funniest reviews in one resource — for example, one cheeky critic commented on a product page for David Hasselhoff’s “Best Of” album, “Music Gold.”
My apologies if you like David Hasselhoff.
But what about when it comes to e-learning programs, online development software and LMSes? Even if you can find a site where people have commented on them, chances are you’re not going to get much you can rely on from a review by user “BlueMan43770.” And would you trust much of what people said without knowing who they are and where they’re coming from? If you’re making a decision on what learning software to implement in your company, you need solid expertise.
Enter G2 Crowd, a software rating and comparison site that looks at business programs in fields such as marketing, human resources and IT. Digital strategist Daniel Honigman took me on a virtual tour of the site last week to show me the basics, and it looks pretty useful — and it’s “BlueMan43770”-ambiguity-free.
Software reviews written by users, administrators and consultants are compiled and contribute to a grid that rates programs by market presence and satisfaction according to contenders, leaders, niche audiences and high performers. For example, the report on e-learning software shows a real-time snapshot of how programs from Saba, SilkRoad, Halogen and SumTotal rank according to G2 Crowd reviewers.
Having just launched the current site less than a year ago, the full report on e-learning software have not been compiled yet, but Honigman said they’re in progress and could be up in the next few weeks. There is a report on performance management software currently available for download.
But what about the trolls who prowl the Internet, injecting their unfunny, fetid jibes into comment pages and chat rooms? The ones who rate a five-star restaurant only one star because they didn’t like the color of their server’s tie?
G2’s system combats that by monitoring who posts on the site. It flags suspicious posts for quality and uses LinkedIn to verify the poster has a relevant background to rate a program. Site users can sort comments by the reviewer’s role or company type. The process also weeds out blatant advertisers and biased reviewers. “If a Salesforce consultant is writing about Salesforce, we’ll be able to see that and flag it,” Honigman said. “Their reviews are still valid, but we don’t include those in the overall averages.”
Anytime product reviews are available, it’s important that real people in relevant positions give their input. That’s why Honigman said users can reach out to writers through the site to hear more about their experience with certain software.
Looking at the site, it seems like the answers are so thorough a reach-out might not be necessary. Maybe that’s the nature of the learning profession, but the review process requires more than just “Type your comments here.” G2 Crowd actually grades reviews, which is an incentive for competitive, perfection-driven learning leaders.
“You can find more information about a $100 TV than a $100,000 piece of software,” Honigman said. G2 Crowd is trying to change that, one review at a time.
Update: G2's analysis grid on e-learning programs is now live on its webpage.
